The global sports equipment market grew by 4.3 percent to $57.8 billion at wholesale in dollar terms in 2010, according to an annual evaluation of public and private companies's figures compiled by Sporting Goods Intelligence. It was a major turnaround after the 9.6 drop witnessed in 2009 and it was driven by the 25 biggest players in the market, whose sales grew by 10.7 percent.
Some of the growth was related to changes in foreign exchange currencies. While the U.S. market grew by only 0.9 percent, the rest of the world showed an increase of 6.8 percent in dollars, somewhat enhanced by currencies. Shimano, the second-largest player in the global market after Jarden Corporation, had the strongest growth in dollars at 22.0 percent, although its sales in yen increased by only 14.4 percent. The Rossignol Group grew by 2.5 percent in dollars and by 10 percent in euros.
The bicycle segment remained a relatively bright spot, although Shimano, Giant, Trek and Dorel performed better than Accell Group or Derby Cycle, due in part to exchange rates. The improved ski market also a played a role, although it is not a big portion of the total sports equipment market, but this did not prevent Head from performing less well than other groups. The lackluster golf market affected most of the companies in the sector with the exception of Adidas and its TaylorMade subsidiary.
These and other conclusions stand out from the global sports equipment chart featured in this issue. We have made all possible efforts to take softgoods out of the revenues reported for the different companies, but this has not always been possible. Some figures are estimates. All the values have been converted to U.S. dollars based on average exchange rates calculated by the OECD for each year.
