A preliminary estimate by Fedas, the European sporting goods retailers' federation, indicates that sporting goods retailers across Europe increased their sales by 3 percent to a total of €38.75 billion in 2010, including a sales increase in Germany of 3.5 percent to €7.5 billion. A year ago, Fedas gave exactly the same estimates for the growth of the European and German markets in 2009.

These other figures were given by Werner Haizmann, who is the president of both Fedas and VDS, the German sporting goods retailers' federation, at the usual Wednesday conference held by Messe München before the Ispo show. Fedas' estimate is based on input from VDS and a few other national retailers' associations in countries such as France, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.

We shall provide estimates from other countries in due course, but in general, the northern part of Europe performed better than the southern part of the continent .

Haizmann attributed the relatively big sales increases recorded in the past year to a growing consciousness for health, fitness and wellness by consumers. Partially, the weather helped particularly in Central Europe with great winter months at the beginning and the end of last year along with a less splendid summer, which helped fuel the outdoor business. A further extra boost came from the football World Cup in South Africa.

In Germany, sales of winter sports items proved again to be the engine, with sales up by an estimated 20 percent as in 2009, after a 10 percent increase in 2008. Sales patterns were similar in France, Austria, Switzerland and Spain. For the first time ever, more ski boots were sold than skis, reflecting an ongoing trend to rent skis, while purchasing boots. Along with ski boots, European retailers made nice profits with accessories such as caps, gloves, socks and scarves. The run on ski helmets has slowed down, but has remained stable with a trend toward higher-priced items by the stronger brands.

German shops had a lot of success with ski apparel for children, and some of them ran out of children's ski pants for kids even before Christmas. They also took advantage of the growing outdoor market: After sales growth of 14 percent in 2008 and 15 percent in 2009, the outdoor segment jumped in Germany last year by another 20 percent. Team sports were up by 25 percent, thanks mainly to the World Cup; the running category grew by 3 percent. Fitness was up by 5 percent while racquet sports remained stable after a 2 percent increase in 2009.

The two big German buying groups report great winter sales, but indicate that it was an exceptional winter. Snow came early in November and temperatures were low. A lot of shops ran out of accessories such as scarves, caps and gloves early on. Unusually heavy snow was found not only in the southern parts, but all across the country up to the coasts of the North and Baltic Seas. In some northern cities even cross-country skiing was possible downtown.

Thanks to these unusual weather conditions, retailers affiliated with Sport 2000 sold 22 percent more skis than the previous year. Sales of ski boots increased by 26 percent, reflecting the fact that growing ski rentals are harming sales of skis more than of boots. Even snowboarding, recently a flat business in Germany, was up by 18 percent compared with 2009. Helmets decreased, however, by 17 percent after two special seasons in the country where they had been partially fueled by the ski accident of a high-ranking politician On the other hand, higher-priced goggles are selling easily.

Intersport Germany, too, walked away from the year 2010 with great figures. Year-on-year, the three best months comparing with the previous year were March (+18%), November (+23%) and December (+28%). Across the year, sales were up by 11 percent, mainly driven by football and other team sports (+13%), the outdoor category (+18%) and snow sports (+25%). Intersport isolated the figures for a category that it calls winter leisure wear, comprising caps, scarves and gloves, which skyrocketed by 36 percent. This all was due to the freezing November and December months, whih left the shelves empty in many sports stores.