HEAD NV estimated that Europe generated 65 percent of the global market for winter sports equipment in 2010, which it estimated at approximately €920 million ($1.22bn) at the wholesale level. That included €320 million ($424.5mm)for skis, €150 million ($199.0mm) for bindings, €230 million($305.1mm)for boots and €220 million ($291.9mm) for snowboard equipment, the company said in its annual report, which was released Thursday.

 

Europe accounted for approximately 65% of the world market in
2009, the United States and Canada approximately 26% and Japan approximately 9%. The snowboard market is led by North America, followed by Europe and then Japan. There are approximately 50 million skiers and 8 million snowboarders active worldwide, Head estimated.


The company said sales of skis has declined  from an estimated 6.5 million pairs sold per year worldwide in the late 1980's to approximately 4.1 million pairs sold in 2006. In 2010, approximately 3.2 million pairs were sold. The decline has been driven by consumers' continued to shift to snowboarding, an absence of significant product innovation, except for the introduction of the carving ski in 1996, and the severe decline in the Japanese market.

 

The market has yet to recover from its dramatic decline in the 2006/2007 season, when sales plummeted because of very bad snow conditions worldwide. In the last years, the snowboard market developed into a new form of winter sport, and the market increased from 800,000 boards sold in 1995 to a peak of 1.6 million in 2000 and decreased to 900,000 in 2010 as a result of a further decline of the North American market.


The ski bindings market declined from approximately 5.9 million pairs sold per year in the early 1990's to approximately 3.2 million in 2010. The ski boot market increased from 3.6 million pairs sold in 2003 to 4.0 million pairs in 2006. In 2007, the market collapsed to 2.8 million pairs of ski boots and since then improved in 2010 back to 3.6 million pairs sold.

 

Head also estimated that the market for tennis racquets in 2010 was approximately 9.0 million units at a wholesale value of approximately €260 million ($344.9mm). “Based on information currently available but also including internal estimates, we assume a market decline in 2010 compared to 2009 of 4% and 1% in units and value respectively,” the company said in its annual report.


The company estimates that worldwide sales of tennis balls were approximately 23.0 million dozens at a wholesale value of approximately €183 million ($242.8mm). While the unit volume remained unchanged since 2009, the value of all products sold was slightly higher in 2010.

The diving market, which Head defines the diving market as the market for diving masks, fins, suits, BCDs, regulators, computers and diving accessories, reached approximately €350 million ($464.3mm) at wholesale last year. Head believes that the diving market was flat in 2010 in Europe and Asia and declining by around 5% and in the United States.


The company said the diving market, which was among the most impacted by the global recession in 2008 and 2009, stabilized during the second half of 2010.