The European Outdoor Group (EOG) is launching its largest research project to-date in an effort to establish the size of the outdoor sporting goods market on the continent. 


The project is in direct response to a survey earlier this year that found providing a solution to the lack of market data was ranked as the number one priority by EOG members, said Mark Held, secretary general, EOG. A decision was then taken by the EOG Board to provide a solution that would be simple, cost-effective, and confidential.

Companies and brands are being asked to provide sales data by calendar year, across seven product categories and nineteen markets. By providing this data the company will qualify to receive the full market data information free of charge. The commitment is to provide figures for 2008, 2009 and 2010, the report covering the first three years will be published in June 2011, then for 2011, 2012 and 2013, figures will be published in May of the following year.


The information received from each participant will be sent to a third party Notary Public who’s task will be to ensure that there is no visibility of which brand has supplied the data. It will then be sent to the research partner whose task it is to analyse the data and compile the report. Neither the EOG nor its research partner will have any visibility of the brand that has supplied the data. The data will be collected annually based on invoiced sales by brands to distributors / subsidiaries or direct to a retailer in that country.


The project is open to all brands, not just EOG members, and the resulting market data will be provided free of charge to those brands that supply data for the previous three years and a minimum of three future years, ensuring consistency of data.


A few points to note:



  • The market data will be provided free – only to those who participate.
  • If a brand doesn’t join at the outset it cannot join later!
  • This data will not be available for sale. Either a brand participates or it will not get the data.
  • The information will be 100% confidential. It will be collated by a Notary Public and they will provide to the EOG and Profile Consultancy only the raw numbers with no brand identity attached. No-one other than the notary will ever know the individual brand figures.

Information about the State of Trade Survey, including brochure and information in German and French, is available on the EOG website (www.europeanoutdoorgroup.com/marketresearch).