When winter never came, running shoes, sneakers and low price goods grew big. Ecom bloomed by almost 20 percent during the period.
The Swedish sports market has had major difficulties gaining profitability. For three straight years, the market has shown red numbers. In Q1 a positive turn finally came.
The first quarter of the year both began and ended on a positive note for sports retail. In January, sales rose by 8.4 percent, followed by modest growth of 0.9 percent in February. The quarter ended strong with an increase of 13.0 percent in March. The calendar helped, Easter falling in April this year. Last year it fell in March and dampened sales for the month, with some stores closing and many people going away on vacation.
“After three challenging years for the industry, with reduced demand and pressure on profitability, it is very gratifying to start the year with positive growth in sports retail,” said Jonas Linder, CEO of Svenskt Sportforum. ”We are cautiously optimistic about the future, even though clouds are on the horizon, given the turbulent and uncertain global situation. The hope is that the positive trend will continue and that sports retail will be able to further strengthen its position.”
Ecom up 20%
E-commerce boosted sales in the first quarter of the year, with growth of almost 20 percent, and accounted for 18 percent of sales in sporting goods. Store sales grew by 5.2 percent. Overall, it has been a mild winter with a lack of snow, which has had a major impact on the development of the sporting goods trade. The footwear category was a real growth driver in the first quarter, boosted by an early spring. The seasonal categories of running and sneakers/fashion were the driving forces in the category and showed good growth figures.
“We are seeing a large increase in running groups/communities, particularly among younger people,” said Erik Nystedt, Territory Director Scandinavia at Brooks Running. “This, in turn, is creating high demand for races, with many starting places selling out as soon as registration opens. Most of these runners are very curious about new models and trends in running shoes, which drives sales. In addition, the weather has been unusually favorable for running for most of the first quarter.”
Shoes and low-price goods rose as winter went green
Sweden’s largest sports chain, Stadium, saw a significant drop in sales in financial year 2024, which ended last August. Sales for the full year fell by 35 percent compared to 2023. Like other sports chains in Sweden, Stadium has since had to make significant changes to find its way back to a winning business model. For Stadium, this has meant closing several stores; for others, moving to new locations in cities where they are already established. Stadium CEO Karl Eklöf has recently said that he believes the company is on the right track. But the recent mild winter obviously did not help matters. Like other players in the industry, Stadium had to bring out shoes and spring products earlier, which boosted sales.
Daniel Löfkvist, COO and Vice President at Stadium Group, emphasizes the impact of the weather:
“After a slow and prolonged winter, or rather the absence of winter, we entered a slightly different weather pattern in the second half of Q1, which led to good sales, especially of shoes, with running as the strongest segment. We are now looking forward to consumption continuing in the same direction and to the summer being a really good trading period.”
On the other hand, the low-price chain Stadium Outlet is doing well. Just over a week ago, two new Outlet stores opened, one in Sweden and one in Norway. Stadium now has around 200 stores, 85 of which are Outlet stores.
The part of the sports retail sector that was hardest hit by behavioral changes after the end of the coronavirus pandemic and consumer caution during the recession was equipment sales. In the first quarter of 2025, however, these sales grew by 3.4 percent, which was the first time since Q4 2021 that the segment showed positive development. This was despite unfavorable weather during the quarter for classic winter categories such as cross-country skiing, where sales declined.
Lars Palmgren, CEO of SGN Sport (Team Sportia, Sportingen, Bike Nation), comments on the development:
“Unfortunately, it has been a very mild winter, which has had a negative impact on sales in certain categories, perhaps most notably cross-country skiing. It is therefore very encouraging that other categories are performing strongly during this period, which indicates that we Swedes want to exercise and be active regardless of the weather.”
