Results of the 2017 Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) Manufacturers’ Sales by Category Report detail a 2 percent increase overall in the combined categories of sporting goods and fitness equipment, sports apparel, athletic footwear, and licensed products.
“2016 performance was marked by choppy, modest growth,” said Tom Cove, SFIA president and CEO. “Obviously, bankruptcy at retail was a major disruptor both in terms of discounting to consumers and over inventory. Beyond the retail disruption, we saw pockets of growth and signs of vulnerability. The sustainability of the ‘athleisure’ phenomenon continues to be a strong positive sign.”
Each year the SFIA collects shipment data from a variety of manufacturers which is combined with additional data points that allows projection in industry wide wholesale shipment data.
In 2016, athletic footwear rose 2.8 percent. The three top segments in the footwear category included Casual, up 9.2 percent; Classics, up 5.0 percent; and Basketball, up 3.1 percent.
Total exercise as a category, saw an increase of 1.5 percent, led by institutional exercise equipment with an increase of 4.2 percent, whereas consumer exercise equipment remained relatively flat in 2016, with a minor increase of 0.5 percent. Digging deeper in to the data; treadmills saw an impressive jump of 9.9 percent in the institutional exercise equipment category and 2.3 percent in the consumer category.
Athletic apparel was up 1.9 percent. The two leaders in apparel were performance and fitness apparel, where each saw an increase of 2.9 percent in 2016.
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