This came out for the fourth year in a row from the annual study conducted by Sporting Goods Intelligence on the global branded athletic footwear and apparel markets. While the sports shoe market grew by 8.5 percent to an estimated $57.97 billion last year in terms of the vendors' revenues, the market for sports apparel inched up by only 1.4 percent to $78.0 billion.
We already reported on the tepid 0.9 percent rise recorded last year in the sports equipment market, which was worth $74.2 billion at wholesale. In fact, aside from footwear, the overall sporting goods market was relatively flat last year, particularly in the U.S., where major retail bankruptcies led to reduced orders for all kinds of products. The situation was worse in Latin America, generally better in Europe and much better in China and other parts of the Asia-Pacific region.
Evidently, the ongoing strong athleisure trend benefited sales of sneakers and other casual shoe offerings by Adidas, Puma and other major sports brands, including many new and creative renditions of iconic styles, more than their sports performance models. Thanks in part to collaborations with well-known personalities and strong marketing, especially via the social media, these products sold out better than outdoor shoes, whose sales declined in Europe for the first time in many years, and probably also better than many comfort shoes with the possible exceptions of at least one iconic brand, Birkenstock.
The stronger lifestyle orientation led Nike to lose market share for the first time on a global scale in many years, falling by 0.6 percentage points to 38.3 percent to the benefit of the Adidas Group, whose share grew by two full percentage points to 19.3 percent (see the chart on page 3). Skechers boosted its share to 6.1 percent, taking over the third spot from the brands of VF Corp. and New Balance.
The classical sports brands have been unable to make the same statement in the less technical and more fragmented sports apparel sector, where fashion brands and retailers have jumped more easily onto the athleisure bandwagon and where premium outerwear brands like Moncler or Canada Goose have been more successful.
You will find the detailed figures for each major sports company or brand on pages 3 and 5 of this issue. They refer to their revenues from footwear or apparel, including sales to distributors and through their growing consumer-direct retail channels, which are boosting their sales scores. They are based on public data reported by the companies or, in their absence, on input from their management or from industry experts.
As every year, all the sales figures are converted to U.S. dollars at the average exchange rate calculated by the OECD for each year. In contrast with previous years, where exchange rates made a difference outside the U.S., the growth rates in dollars came closer to the growth rates in local currencies in 2016, with the exception of the British pound.
Partly because of currencies, the 8.5 percent increase recorded in the branded athletic footwear market last year was slightly higher than the revised 6.0 percent increase of the previous year. Together with the European football championship, the stronger euro explained in part a solid 9.1 percent increase in the European athletic footwear market to $14.7 billion.
The vendors' athletic footwear sales rose by only 6.3 percent to $22.5 billion in North America, due in part to the fading popularity of basketball shoes. Continued strong growth by the international brands in China was a key factor in a jump of 14.0 percent to $12.8 billion in the Asia-Pacific region. The rest of the world grew by only 5.5 percent to $7.9 billion.
At this pace, and in view of its large population, the Asia-Pacific region is likely to overtake Europe and North America as the biggest market for sports shoes at some time in the future. It represented 22 percent of the global market last year, behind North America at 39 percent and Europe at 25 percent.
Sports brands followed a similar geographical pattern in the wider sports apparel market, which grew by 1.3 percent to $36.6 billion in North America, by 3.1 percent to $19.3 billion in Europe and by 6.4 percent to $14.7 billion in Asia-Pacific. Latin America fell by 1.7 percent to $7.3 billion. Further regional details will shortly become available in SGI's annual Apparel & Footwear Market Facts report.
The best performers in the sports apparel market were the bigger vendors with established brands like Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and Puma. They all outperformed the market, with UA growing by 15.4 percent. Both Nike and Adidas improved their market shares, with Nike remaining slightly ahead of its main competitor because of its dominant 13.4 percent share of the U.S. market. With a 3.7 percent share, the Adidas Group still trailed both VF and UA in this category.
The biggest Chinese brand of sports apparel, Anta Sports, grew by 15.5 percent. Two Japanese companies, Goldwin and Mizuno, scored well, too. Columbia Sportswear and VF suffered from another late winter season. Makers of relatively basic products like Gildan Sportswear and Hanesbrands had a relatively weak year. Amer Sports and Asics diversified their offerings in this sector, scoring double-digit gains, but they remained at the bottom of our chart.
To download the Athletic Footwear Chart, click HERE
To dowload the Apparel Chart, click HERE
