Li-Ning will open the doors tonight to its first North American retail store.

The Pearl District store at 910 N.W. Hoyt St. marks the Chinese athletic footwear and apparel company’s maiden voyage into the U.S. retail market. The store will feature the four core product categories it intends to market to U.S. consumers: badminton, lifestyle, table tennis and basketball products endorsed by Los Angeles Clippers star Baron Davis.

The store will be open to the public for only an hour starting at 5:30 p.m., when customers can buy one of 50 pairs of exclusive Baron Davis Boom shoes and receive a vinyl toy autographed by Davis.

That will be followed by an invite-only event from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m featuring an appearance by Davis.

Earlier this month, Li-Ning launched its first U.S. retail Web site with with a limited offering focused on basketball, kung-fu, table tennis and badminton products, all of which are available at www.li-ningusa.com.

England’s badminton players got back to what they do best at the weekend as the headlines were firmly driven towards title winning causes after several months where off-court stories – pulling out of Hyderabad’s World Championships and the venue for London 2012 – had ruled the roost for all the wrong reasons.

With all of England’s top internationals in one place, the National Championships, which took place at the Manchester Velodrome, provided the clearest indication yet as to where future success lies for Badminton England, the national governing body.