The European market for sporting goods dropped in the third quarter by 8 percent in the area of clothing and by 5 percent in the footwear segment, says NPD Group in a press release. NPD officials declined to specify the sales increases or declines that occurred in the five countries that this market research company analyzes on an ongoing basis, except in France where sales of sports apparel and shoes fell by 7 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
NPD, which relies on extensive consumer and retail surveys to obtain its data, points out that the actual declines have taken place in the fashion or lifestyle segment of the market. Purchases of sports shoes used for sport increased by 5 percent in volume across the five markets, compared with the same quarter one year ago. Sales of sports apparel used for any sports grew by 12 percent. Instead, consumers declared that their unit purchases of sports products for everyday use fell by 7 percent for footwear and by 10 percent for clothing.
Within the sports fashion segment, sales of high-priced items have not gone down, however. Renaud Vaschalde, the French-based sports market expert of NPD, concluded that the current economic crisis is mainly affecting the lower-priced products in this category because they are regarded as a superfluous expenditure by price-conscious customers who prefer to spend less on unbranded items, such as those they can find at H&M or Zara (more at www.npd.com).
