Consumer retail purchases of sporting goods equipment, athletic footwear and athletic apparel increased to $69.4 billion for the categories tracked by the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) in 2017, an increase of 1 percent versus 2016. This data is contained in the 2018 edition of the NSGA Sporting Goods Market report.
A deeper look into the report indicates dollar sales increased by 2 percent for athletic footwear, while equipment increased by 1 percent and athletic clothing remained flat vs. 2016. The footwear category once again experienced largest dollar gains in the gym/fashion sneaker segment. Walking shoes were a close second, followed by the cross training and hiking segments. The equipment category benefitted from growth in the camping, fishing and bicycle equipment segments. The top dollar generator in the apparel category was swimming. Two outdoor categories, camping and hiking, were also top performers with weightlifting and bicycle riding rounding out the top five.
From a channel of purchase perspective, full-line sporting goods stores were once again the leading channel of purchase for sporting goods equipment. Within the segment, online sites have continued to gain momentum while specialty sport stores have continued to slip. Both are now tied for the No. 2 spot. Within the footwear segment, a continued drop in consumer purchases at Sporting Goods Stores has now put this store type behind online sites for the top spot. Discount Stores and Specialty Footwear Stores are now just behind Sporting Goods Stores and are tied for the third spot.
In addition to reporting sales trends for more than 130 product categories, NSGA’s Sporting Goods Market report also includes insights into the channels of purchase and the demographics of the key users for most product categories.
