It’s a $7 billion market-and on the rise. That’s one way to describe the Canadian market for sporting goods equipment, sports clothing/activewear, and athletic footwear. In recent years, the Canadian sports market has been inching along — $6.6 billion in 2002; $6.8 billion in 2003; and $6.9 billion in 2004. Those facts are just a few of the many figures in the Canadian Sporting Goods Market Report (2006 edition)-distributed by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA). This report is prepared for SGMA by Trendex Sports Vision. This specific study provides the reader with a number of spending details (units purchased and dollars spent) on the Canadian market-by category (sporting goods equipment, sports clothing/activewear, and athletic footwear), retail channel, retail outlet, product type (golf, tennis, camping, snow skis, etc.) and geographic location (province/city).

Listed below are a few significant statistics on the sporting goods market in Canada in 2005:

  • Sporting goods equipment sales were the largest portion of overall sales — $3.9 billion
  • Among various categories of sporting goods retailers, sporting specialists generated 76.4% of their sales from sporting goods equipment.
  • Nationwide, unit sales of sporting goods equipment rose 17.4%, but sales rose 2.5%.
  • The three leading retail outlets for sales are Canadian Tire, Sport Chek, and Wal-Mart.
  • The three leading metro markets are Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal.
  • Among sports retailers, Sport Chek sells the fourth largest amount of activewear units, but generates the most amount of sales.
  • In the sports clothing/activewear category, Nike and adidas are the top brands.
  • In athletic footwear, Nike and New Balance are the top two revenue-generating brands.

There are also sections of this report which focus on specific activities such as archery, baseball/softball, curling, bicycles/bicycle equipment, camping, exercise equipment, fishing, golf, hockey, hunting, ice hockey/figure skates, in-line/roller skate equipment, racquet sports, snow ski, ski/snowboard, water sports, and volleyball/football/soccer/basketball/lacrosse. In each section, 2005 sales are listed as well as the main retail channels of distribution and the main retailers that sell that category.