In dollar terms, the European market for athletic apparel slipped by 5.4 percent in 2009 to $18,205 million, faring just slightly worse than the U.S., which dropped by 5.0 percent to $25,833 million. Increases were seen in the Asia-Pacific region, up by 4.7 percent to $12,936 million on the strength of local Chinese brands; and in Latin America and emerging markets, rising by 6.5 percent to $3,824 million.
Globally, the market saw a slight 2.6 percent drop to $60,798 million. It lagged the athletic footwear market, which had a 0.1 percent decline in 2009 to $33,049 million. This was chiefly the result of continued growth in China and emerging markets for footwear that wasn’t seen as strongly in apparel. Both product categories saw wholesale shipments decline as retailers sold down existing inventories in most major markets, but it would appear that apparel inventories bore the brunt of the de-stocking.
Conducted annually by Sporting Goods Intelligence, the 2009 study of the global wholesale apparel market found declines in sales at most of the largest brands. Despite having a significant 8.5 percent decline in global apparel sales, Adidas Group remained No. 1 in the world rankings, comfortably ahead of Nike, which had a similar 8.4 percent decline in sales for the year. Both suffered share losses as they seemed to take the biggest hits. To some degree, this was a result of tough comparisons after an Olympic year in which they had spent heavily to boost market share. However, their market shares are somewhat better than in 2007, suggesting that even without the one-time boosts of a big event, the major brands continue to gain share.
VF Corporation remained in third place, with a decline at the Imagewear unit offsetting slight gains in Action & Outdoor. Descente and Under Armour had the best performances outside the U.S., with gains of 9.3 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively, but the biggest gains were made by the brands operating primarily in China. Li Ning had a 25.5 percent sales gain, China Dongxiang was up by 30.4 percent and Anta rose by 27.0 percent. Also showing very strong gains in apparel were Xtep (+41.2 percent) and Peak (+69.8 percent). Without these Chinese players, the market would have declined by 3.4 percent, They took market share from Adidas and Nike, which saw their shares in Asia decline by 2.5 percentage points and 0.9 percentage points, respectively, compared with 2008.
This annual review is based on public figures along with input from managements and estimates. SGI makes every effort to eliminate non-apparel sales from the figures. The majority of these sales are at wholesale value although, as with footwear, the percentage of sales done through direct retailing by brands is growing. SGI has chosen to determine market share by corporation in light of the fact that many major companies have a multi-brand approach to the athletic apparel market.
