User research
Consumer insight
Trend research
Design strategy

Yonex × China national badminton team: 2026 competition kit research

KISKA Design · 06.2024 – 08.2024

Inside the national team's training hall, turning what players need into the design direction for their 2026 competition kit.

Fig. 1. The 2026 China team competition collection (image: Yonex)

Client: Yonex
Agency: KISKA Design
Timeline: Jun – Aug 2024
My role: User research · Trends · Design themes
Scope: 20 kit pieces for 2026 · 3 bags for 2027

01Context & challenge

Yonex commissioned KISKA to design the Chinese national badminton team's 2026 competition collection (20 men's and women's pieces across two seasons) and its 2027 bag line.

The challenge was that one kit has to do three jobs at once: perform under elite competition, represent the country, and give a new, mostly post-2000s generation of players something they actually want to wear. So the design direction had to start from the players' real needs.

02My role

As part of the research and strategy team, I worked across the whole user research phase:

Joined the focus group and in-depth interviews at the national team's training base
Synthesised the interviews into functional, visual and emotional findings
Ran desk and trend research across macro, lifestyle and fashion
Helped shape the design themes and colour stories

03Approach

Contextual inquiry

Observed training at the national team and interviewed players and coaches on site.

Focus group

Dug into players' needs, mindsets, use cases and motivations.

Jobs to be done

Mapped the functional, emotional and social jobs the kit has to do.

Trend radar

Scanned macro, lifestyle and fashion trends to set colour and graphic directions.

04Key insights

01
Players vs. coaches
Players wanted bolder, more varied colours; coaches cared more about the national image. The design had to serve both, for example keeping the front restrained and moving expression to the back and tonal patterns.
02
Hidden hard rules
One kit must be true red; the flag can only sit on the left or centre chest; the association forbids different colours front and back; large white areas are out, since they turn see-through with sweat and read as waving the white flag.
03
Two ways of being seen
The Olympics and Asian Games ban sponsor logos, which can leave a kit looking empty, and every design has to read from the stands and on TV.
04
A post-2000s squad
By 2026 the core players are born after 2000, care about how they look on social media and have rituals such as wearing a winning shirt again, so the kit needs to give them confidence.
05
Women's fit issues
Skirts were too light with too little drape and got caught by rackets; players preferred pleats.