After two years of rapid but slowing growth, archery equipment sales appear to be  trailing behind year ago levels.

Point-of-sale data collected from about 15,000 retailers by SSI Data show year-to-date sales of Archery products are trailing below year ago levels, when sales growth dropped to the high-single digits from the mid-teens  seen in 2013. Archery sales grew by nearly a quarter from 2012 to 2014, according to SSI Data.

Given the seasonality of archery sales, it's hard to know whether the change in trajectory represents a mere pause or the end of growth. Roughly 85 percent of archery products are sold during the last five months of the calendar year, according to SSI data.

Gauging industry sales is difficult because the vast majority of independent archery dealers don't report their sales. However, one industry observer noted sales in the important youth category peaked in 2013 after enjoying a bump from the 2012 debut of The Hunger Games film series, in which Jennifer Lawrence plays the protagonist and ace archer Katniss Everdeen.

“The youth, entry-level compound market peaked in 2013 and has been off since,” said Todd Bahnub, general manager for Brennan Industries of Sparta, WI., which owns Genesis Archery, the exclusive manufacturer of the bow used in the National Archery in Schools Program (NASP). “The movies definitely gave sales a push in 2013.”

Participation data, though sketchy, clearly indicates rapid growth. Membership at USA Archery, which is the best proxy for participation at the highest levels of U.S. archery competition, hit 18,620 this month, up 9.3 percent from the end of 2014 and nearly four-fold from 2011. Based on a telephone survey conducted in 2013, the Archery Trade Association (ATA) estimates that 8 percent of Americans 18 and older, or 18.8 million, shot archery or bowhunted in 2012. Research published in June by Technavio forecast U.S. archery sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.55 percent this year. The Irish firm Research and Markets has since predicted U.S. archery equipment sales will grow at a capitalized annual growth rate of 9.55 percent from 2014 through 2019. 

The growth has attracted big investors to the industry over the last two years. Dick's Sporting Goods, for instance, has equipped all of its Field & Stream specialty stores with indoor archery ranges so customers can test compound bows. Bass Pro Shops is making a major push into bow fishing. At least five private equity firms have invested in archery brands since late 2013 in anticipation that big box retailers growing share of the market will force vendors to consolidate.

Scholastic programs fuel growth

Clearly, archery has much more going for it than Jennifer Lawrence, who appropriately enough hails from the archery hotbed of Kentucky. Most independent retailers attribute the industry's growth to NASP, which was launched at 21 middle schools in Kentucky in 2002. NASP reports that about 2,230,000 U.S. students enrolled in the program in the recently concluded school year, up 205,000 from a year earlier. In May, a record 12,045 archers from 763 schools in 42 states and
Washington DC participated in the NASP's U.S. National Tournament in
Louisville, KY. That was up more than 15 percent from a year earlier.

“We added more than 1,100 schools this past year,” NASP President Roy Grimes told Sports Executive Weekly July 10.

The Scholastic 3-D Archery (S3DA) program, launched in 2012 by Louisville-based Scholastic Archery Association, announced June 30 that it had expanded from 17 to 23 states and expects to enter 11 more in the coming year. S3DA was designed with input from retailers, vendors, the Archery Shooters Association (ASA) and the US Collegiate Archery Association (USCAA) to provide a pathway for students to become lifetime archers. Unlike NASP, S3DA involves shooting 3-D replicas of deer and other game and allows students to use any bow that conforms to its specifications.  

Typically, S3DA tournaments are held on Saturday mornings and followed by a family shoot in the afternoon at a venue that is hosting an ASA-sanctioned meet the next day. That allows students and parents to spend the weekend shooting together as well as an opportunity to qualify for regional and national tournaments and spots on college or international archery teams. On July 6, S3DA announced it had partnered with the Pope & Young Club to teach students and their family members how to bow hunt ethically. In addition to being a major booster of conservation, Pope & Young promotes “fair chase” principles that prohibit tactics that give hunters an unfair advantage, such as traps, tranquilizers, jacklighting and shooting from aircraft. Bow hunting is widely regarded by bow manufacturers as the best way to turn students into lifetime customers.

Many retailers say they prefer the S3DA format because it allows students to upgrade their gear as they grow, while drawing more parents into archery.

“With NASP there is no room for the parents to get involved other than watching and coaching,” said Shawn Canada, who owns Crazy Horse Archery & Tackle in Campbellsville, KY and has coached NASP teams for years. “S3DA opens the doors for parents to purchase a bow and shoot alongside their kids and enjoy the sport also. The opportunity is there to sell a parent a bow when they purchase the bow for their child, sometimes it just gets their old bow out from the closet where it has been sitting for years, but that leads to sales of new sights, rest, arrows, strings, etc. The opportunity for shops and ranges has never been better for archery.” S3DA also allows retailers, ranges and clubs to host teams if they can't persuade local schools to do so.

“Scholastic 3D Archery is moving forward at a extremely fast rate,” said S3DA Kentucky Coordinator Stacy Groce. “In the past year we have added several states, state coordinators, regional coordinators and S3DA coaches. It is growing at such a fast pace, we are stretched to get in all the demands for trainings we currently have.”

Wooing women

As in shooting sports, women are driving much of the growth in archery. ATA's research indicates that about 12 percent of adult males and 5 percent of adult females in the U.S. bowhunted or shot target archery in 2012. By comparison, 45 percent of NASP's participants are girls. That leaves a lot of runway for growing the sport.

Bow vendors have had great success growing the youth and women's market by offering bows that can be adjusted as the archer's size, strength and skill grows. This spring, Bass Pro began selling the BlackOut Intrigue Compound Bow Package designed in collaboration with Bowtech that allows the archer to adjust the draw length to from 23 to 30 inches and the draw weight from 20 to 70  pounds. Both settings can be easily changed to adapt the bow to growing skills or growing archers.

Compound bows have also helped bring more women into the sport. Of the country's 5.8 million female archers, ATA survey data show about 60 percent shot compound bows and 30 percent used crossbows. By comparison 80 percent of male archers shot compound bows and 21 percent shot cross bows. The discrepancy may help explain why Bowtech acquired Excalibur Crossbow Inc. in January, 2014.

Also driving growth, particularly of the women's market, has been Outdoor Channel, which now reaches 40 million U.S. cable households and increasingly features hunting shows hosted by women such Eva Shockey, who became the first women to appear on the cover of Field & Stream magazine.

Capital flowing to category

More entrepreneurs are building indoor ranges that extend the competition season through winter. And a growing list of national specialty retailers are offering instruction and hosting competitions to grow the sport.

At each of its grand openings, Field & Stream hosts the Field & Stream Hunt, Cast & Pitch Youth Challenge which gives children ages 6-15 the opportunity to shoot a bow and learn valuable safety measures in the process. The retailer will host two chain-wide archery events this year, as well as a host of in-store clinics and demonstrations around bow hunting throughout the year. 

“We certainly see the category growing, especially with the continued support of grassroots youth programs like NASP and S3DA that develop interest, skills and ethics in young archers,” Field & Stream said in a statement released to Sports Executive Weekly July 9.

“We certainly see the category growing especially with the continued support of grassroots youth programs like NASP and S3DA that develop interest, skills and ethics in young archers,” Field & Stream said in a statement released to Sports Executive Weekly July 9.

In June, Bass Pro had to cut off registration at its third annual US Open Bowfishing Championship at 275 teams. While the retailers is still tallying numbers, it appears that at least 1,100 archers competed in the event, up from about 900 last year and 500 in 2013.

Such numbers help explain why Norwest Equity Partners opted to keep Bowtech in June 2013, when it divested Bowtech's former parent company, firearms manufacturer Savage Sports. Bowtech's acquisition of Excalibur Crossbow seven months later likely clinched Bowtech's status as the country's top manufacturer of archery products and the company may just be getting started.

On April 18, Norwest Equity Partners announced formation of a new limited partnerships that will invest $1.6 billion to build companies into industries leaders.