During a presentation Wednesday at SFIA’s Industry Leaders Summit in Baltimore, SFIA Chairman Bob Puccini, SFIA President Tom Cove, and PHIT America Founder Jim Baugh disclosed that with more and more Americans moving from the ‘active’ category to ‘inactives’ or ‘couch potatoes,’ the sports and fitness industry will lose $28 billion in retail revenue in the next few years. This simply represents the loss of retail sales as people become more sedentary.

Research by Sports Marketing Surveys of 40,000 Americans shows the percentage of American who are totally inactive in 104 sports or fitness activities has grown from 25 percent in 2007 to 28 percent in 2012. More importantly, this trend shows no signs of slowing down and will grow to a whopping 31.1% by 2018, which will reduce retail consumption alone by $28 billion.

Keith Storey, President of Sports Marketing Surveys, has been studying these trends. “The inactivity pandemic is real and is a threat to America and the sports & fitness industry.  It is slow and gradual, but the impact on industry revenue is dramatic. The industry must face this trend and turn it around.”

To learn more about this trend, which parts of the industry are growing, and what you can do to help reverse this trend of inactivity, Click here.