On August 10th, the “China Youth Sports Growth Blue Book” (hereinafter referred to as the “Blue Book”) was officially released in Beijing. Under the “Healthy China 2030” strategy, the Blue Book emerged as a paradigm of collaborative advancement amongst academia, industry, and public service platforms. Jointly initiated by the China Commercial Federations of Enterprises, the Social Work Development Foundation of China, and eight major institutions, with CCTV Market Research (CTR) leading the writing effort and published concurrently by the National Academy of Governance Press of the Party School of the Central Committee of CPC.
This publication consolidates expertise from medical health and scientific research across different sectors, crafting for the first time a systematic theoretical framework under the concept “sports aid in height growth.” It is aimed at providing families with a scientific and practical guide for youth growth, advancing the industry standards of youth sports health through interdisciplinary integration and technological innovation, popularizing scientific parenting concepts and height growth strategies, thereby contributing a “Chinese Solution” to the healthful development of Chinese youth.
75% of Chinese families consider height as the primary indicator of youth growth under the guidance of the “Healthy China 2030” outline. Youth health has become a focus of national and social attention. Research indicates that 75% of families consider “height” a key health indicator for their children, although the underlying health risks such as obesity and scoliosis persist as “invisible barriers” to fully unleashing height potential.
To address these challenges, the Blue Book gathers the expertise of the National Health Commission’s Maternal and Child Health Center, the Sports Medicine Research Institute of Peking University Third Hospital, the Child Nutrition and Health Research Center of China Children’s Center, the affiliated Bayi Children’s Hospital of PLA Army General Hospital, and institutions like Tsinghua University. Analyzing literature and surveys from 2,000 youth families aged 3-15 nationwide, it deeply investigates the root causes of parental “height anxiety” and the core needs for sports and sports equipment, innovatively constructs a “sports aid in growth” theoretical system covering sports intensity, equipment fitting, and coordinated nutrition and sleep, thus filling a theoretical gap in the field of youth sports growth in China.
Having deeply cultivated the field of youth sports for 13 years, Xtep’s release of the Blue Book marks an important practice of its social responsibility. “Foot health is the cornerstone of pursuing height increase,” says Dai Bin, General Manager of Xtep Youth. “The Blue Book has found that the synergistic effect of ‘sports + sports equipment’ promotes height growth. Xtep has always focused on healthy growth, innovatively creating a ‘1 measure, 2 fit, 3 sports’ full-chain solution to aid in sports height pursuit.”
Mr. He Wenyi from the Peking University Institute of Physical Education Integration highlights, “The release of the Blue Book is a vivid practice of the government, enterprises, and society jointly protecting youth growth. We look forward to more companies like Xtep actively participating in youth health growth, leading the field of youth sports growth with technological innovations and robustly ensuring the robust growth of our nation’s youth.”
The conference featured a “Height Pursuit Mini-Forum,” where experts from regulatory bodies, clinical medicine, and sports sciences discussed the findings of the Blue Book, extensively decoding the underlying logic of sports aiding growth.
The Blue Book underscores that adolescent height development is the result of interplay between genetic potential and external interventions: 60% determined by genetics, with the remaining 40% influenced by factors like nutrition, sleep, exercise, hormones, and emotional health. Exercise, as a core intervention method, promotes height growth through dual mechanisms: longitudinal pressure stimulation on bone joints to accelerate the division of cartilage cells in the growth plates, and effective stimulation of growth hormone secretion, enhancing blood supply and metabolic activity in bone tissues, thus powering long bone growth.
“Scientific sports for height growth involve four key elements: choosing the right sports, mastering scientific training methods, equipping appropriate sports gears, and implementing scientific injury prevention,” stressed pediatric expert Cui Yutao in the forum. As the foot is a secondary engine for height, it directly affects skeletal development, making appropriate equipment selection crucial, especially sports shoes that ensure comfort over the instep, heel fit, and even arch stress.
As the first domestic special equipment developed with the “sports pursuit of height” as its supporting principle, the birth of Xtep Growth Shoes represents a typical practice of integrating industry, education, and research. Professor Liu Jingmin from Tsinghua University’s Sports and Health Science Center stated, “Based on the deep collaboration in children’s sports postures, foot health biomechanics, and sports functions, every pair of Xtep Growth Shoes embodies the scientific accumulation from 150,000 sets of Chinese children and youth foot data, a ‘university + enterprise’ model that translates academic achievements into protective forces for growth, allowing scientific theories to truly ground into products enhancing youth sports pursuit of height.”