There's never been a better time to buy sports apparel than right now, as consumers are getting a great “bang for their buck” at the cash register. That's the underlying theme of SGMA International?s Sports Apparel Monitor (2003
edition), produced in conjunction with The NPD Group, Inc.

Some of the featured elements of this annual study on the size of the sports apparel market include: An Outline of the U.S. Sports Apparel Market, About Sports Licensed Apparel, Spending by Sports Apparel Product Category, Where Sports Apparel Is Purchased, About Sports Apparel Consumers, and Apparel Sales on the Internet.

Newsworthy notes from the Sports Apparel Monitor (2003 edition) are listed below:

  • The retail sports apparel market in 2002 was $37.2 billion, up from $36.0 billion in 2001. The size of this market for the first half of 2003 was $17.1 billion.
  • While average prices per garment have dropped significantly (-11.7%), a strong increase in per unit consumption (up 17.2%) led to a slight jump (up 3.5%) in overall sports apparel retail sales.
  • Women spend more money on sports apparel than men, though men purchase more items/units.
  • The top two reasons why consumers buy licensed sports apparel are because they are “a fan of the team” and because they “like the style.”
  • The caps/hats category had the largest single-year sales increase (50.6%) – from $446 million in 2001 to $672 million in 2002.

  • Specialty stores (like The Limited, The Gap, Abercrombie and Fitch, etc.) sell the most sports apparel, while mass merchants (like Wal-Mart, Target, etc.) sell the most active sports apparel.

This report is available both as a PDF download or as a Kinko's Doc Store printed copy. OBTAIN REPORT