After rising by only 2 percent in the first quarter, the consumption of sports apparel and footwear jumped by 30 percent in the second quarter and by 15.5 percent in the first six months of 2021 in the five main European countries – Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the U.K. – according to the NPD Group. Footwear outperformed apparel in the first half, growing by 17 percent versus 14 percent.
However, sales to end consumers were 6 percent below the level reached in the first half of 2019, in contrast with the performance of some major sports brands. NPD doesn’t cover sports equipment in its consumer panel, which also gives many details for online purchases and for product categories and brands.
Evidently, the retail pipeline has been in a replenishment mode in an effort to respond to pent-up consumer demand, as evidenced by the fact that the growth in the sports brands’ turnover was generally higher than the overall consumption in the first six months of this year thanks to over-proportional increases in their wholesale segment, in contrast with their growing emphasis on direct-to-consumer sales. As a result, their overall revenues generally stood above the levels recorded in the corresponding period of 2019, especially in the second quarter.
The ongoing retail lockdowns in Germany and some other countries had an impact on the overall level of consumption, says NPD. In Germany, in fact, overall offline and online sales of sports apparel and shoes grew by only a mid-digit rate as compared to last year. In the other four countries tracked by NPD, the growth rates were 18 percent or higher in the first half.
Anyhow, as usual, the sporting goods sector has been outperforming the general economy in Europe. Preliminary estimates by Eurostat indicate the GDP went up by 1.9 percent in the European Union during the second quarter of this year on a seasonally adjusted basis as compared to the first quarter, when it stood 1.7 percent below the level of the first quarter of 2020. In the second quarter of this year, the GDP was 13.2 percent higher than in the second quarter of 2020, when the pandemic reached its peak.
Looking at the general evolution in the retail trade in the non-food products, sales have been growing almost steadily on a month-to-month sequential basis, except for a dip of 8.3 percent in January from December and a dip of 5.5 percent April from March. They increased by 8.0 percent in February, by 5.7 percent in March, by 8.1 percent in May and by 2.6 percent in June. Curiously, mail-order and online sales performed less well, except in January and March.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, strong increases in sales of nonfood products were recorded as compared to the same month of last year. After declines of 9.5 percent in January and 2.2 percent in February, sales of nonfood products were up by 26.3 percent in March, 38.4 percent in April, 14.3 percent in May and 7.1 percent in June. Mail-order and internet sales grew more strongly as compared to last year. Offsetting the declines in overall sales, they were up by 38.9 percent in January and by 40.4 percent in February, followed by increases of 38.4 percent in March, 18.1 percent in April, 12.6 percent in May and 17.1 percent in June.
