However, Chinese brands are just joining the crowd that's pursuing Lin, analysts said.

Lin's influence on the US basketball market is much larger than on China's market, Qiang noted.

The first beneficiary was the New York Knicks, whose ratings have jumped amid Lin's meteoric rise, and more Knicks games will be broadcast, which means more fees for the team.

Through Lin's fame, the NBA can lure back Asian viewers who stopped watching the game when Yao Ming retired.

"That (Lin's experience) can only help us in terms of lifting the game's ratings and popularity in China," David Stern, the NBA commissioner, told China Daily during a videophone conference on Feb 16.

Explosion of success

Chinese analysts said that Lin's star had risen so fast that they couldn't put an accurate commercial value on it.

"We are collecting data about Lin right now, but his explosive rise has blindsided us," Qiang said.

"Linsanity" is even manifesting itself in China's underground sportswear market, and retailers and manufacturers of the so-called shanzhai are looking forward to take their share.

Wang Ke, who runs a tiny Beijing store selling unauthorized sportswear, said requests for Lin's uniform, T-shirt and other paraphernalia have grown in recent days. The requests come from young fans, male and female alike.

"I haven't had too many consumers looking for Chinese stars' products here, since Yao Ming's early retirement. Now it seems business is bouncing back all of a sudden," said the shopkeeper.

Wang said he expected to sell at least 50 uniforms each month. "I may put up advertisements," he said.

However, his store has to rely on suppliers to feed him with new products with Lin's name on them.

Manufacturers of these bootleg products have told Wang to wait while they obtain samples of the latest Lin products from official shops in New York and Taipei. When knock-off uniforms with Lin's name and number do become available, they'll probably cost 150 yuan ($23.85) to 200 yuan in Wang's shop

Supply is also a problem for online vendors, whose businesses are much bigger than Wang's.

"Lin's uniform is already the best-seller in my online shop," said a vendor surnamed Chen, based in Guangzhou, who offers NBA players' uniforms on Taobao.com, China's largest online shopping website.

Chen got about 450 orders for Lin's uniform between Feb 11 and 5 pm on Monday. He charges 110 yuan.

Chen started to ship orders to his customers on Monday, more than one week after the orders came in, and some late buyers face another five days' wait.

Other goods from key rings to iPhone protective shells bearing Lin's image, name and number have become available as well, but the uniform is still the most popular item, according to sales volume data on Taobao.com.

Li Woke and Sun Xiaochen contributed to this story.

China Daily