In the foreseeable future, the price of European sporting goods can jump by 50 percent, owing to expensive logistics and other difficulties associated with returning foreign brands to the shelves, Marina Malakhatko, head of the retail department of Core.XP, a Moscow-based real estate firm, told local state news outlet Tass.
According to Malakhtko, the product range on the Russian market has almost not suffered due to the exodus of Western brands from the country in 2022. Consumer demand for European brands is also far from waning. “[Russian customers] will certainly keep buying [European goods], though at higher prices,” she said, calculating that since the beginning of the turbulence, prices soared by nearly 20 percent. Malakhatko described the cost of delivering European sporting goods to Russia as “enormous.” In addition, re-sellers offer sporting goods at higher prices compared to brand owners, Malakhatko said, pointing out the fact that a vast majority of European brands are now presented in Russia through a chain of intermediaries.
Some sporting goods segments experienced an exceptional price rise. For instance, the average price of Nike Air Force sneakers went up by 66 percent from 9,190 roubles (€96.3) to 15,299 roubles (€160.3) in 2022, according to research by local publication PG.
The first former Adidas store is about to open its doors after a long outage, a local news outlet, Mash, reported. Supplies will flow to Russia through the UAE, and the prices will be nearly twice as high as they used to be, the publication said, citing sources close to the matter. Adidas will represent 60 percent of the product range. The rest will be other popular brands, like Puma and Nike. Higher prices are attributed to expensive logistics, the unfavourable Russian rouble’s exchange rate and “the factor of exclusivity”, as Adidas sporting goods have long been in short supply on the Russian market.
Image: A. L. on Unsplash
