Chinese sportswear brand ANTA signs NBA star Klay Thompson

Chinese athletics sportswear company ANTA Thursday announced in New York they have signed rising NBA star Klay Thompson.

According to ANTA, they already inked the deal with Thompson last year but did not make the deal public until the company finished the KT FIRE sneakers custom-built for Thompson.

After signing the Golden State sharpshooting guard, ANTA now have Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett, Chandler Parsons, and Luis Scola representing their brand in NBA.

Thompson will debut in Sunday's NBA All-Star Game in New York's Madison Square Garden.

ANTA's new signing followed their yearly financial report on Wednesday when the company said its 2014 net profit jumped nearly one third on growth in children's lines and e-commerce and the total revenue jumped 22.5 percent year-on-year to 8.92 billion yuan.

Chairman Ding Shizhong considered ANTA the first domestic sportswear firm to achieve a turnaround in the sector.

"In the past few years, Chinese sportswear companies all faced with challenges like vague brand image, identical products, over expansion and bad inventory management. After many efforts, Anta is leading the way to achieve a turnaround," said Ding.

Ding now is confident ANTA will have a better performance in 2015.

"Our goal for 2015 is for the total revenue to exceed 10 billion yuan," he said.