France will probably come out again this year as the fastest-growing market for sports apparel and footwear in the five biggest European countries, according to the NPD Group, which tracks it constantly through its online consumer panels.
France remained the most dynamic market in the 12 rolling months through September, with sales increases of 4 percent in footwear and 3 percent in apparel during the third quarter, and the month of October was positive as well. NPD forecasts growth of around 4 percent for the French sporting goods market for all of 2018, while indicating that this will partly depend on the events resulting from internal turbulence that is currently impacting French society and politics.
During the same 12-month period through September, the market for sports shoes and clothing increased by only 1.4 percent in the Big Five, says NPD, which indicates that it will probably grow at a similar pace as in 2017. The German market was basically flat. The Italian market actually declined by one percent, mainly because the sneakers of the major sports brands are less in demand than before. In the corresponding period of last year, sales of sports shoes had risen by 4 percent in Italy.
Taking all Big Five countries together, sales of sports apparel have been down so far this year as they were last year, when they fell by 0.4 percent to €15.8 billion, according to NPD. However, sales of sports shoes rose in 2017 by 4.6 percent to €12.3 billion.
This resulted in an overall increase of 1.7 percent for the two categories to a total of €28.1 billion in 2017 in the Big Five, according to NPD, with increases of 1.4 percent in Germany, 3.8 percent in France, 0.7 percent in the U.K., 1.0 percent in Italy and 0.9 percent in Spain.
With the exception of Italy and France, footwear has continued to drive the sports market so far this year. The sports apparel market has grown in France by 3 percent, while declining by one percent in the four others combined.
The lifestyle segment outperformed the rest of the sports shoe market, except in Italy. NPD notes that only 29 million pairs of shoes out of the 72 million pairs sold in France in the 12 months through September were actually used for sports.
The victory of the French national football team in the Fifa World Cup in Russia this summer did not translate into any growth for football boots, which still showed a negative trend. In contrast, football accounted for more than three quarters of the growth in the apparel category in the third quarter. Excluding football, the apparel market would have remained flat. Swimwear also performed well, thanks to a consistently warm and sunny summer this year. Fitness/training continued to be a growth category in France, taking over from running.
Sales of football jerseys went up also in the other Big Five markets with the notable exception of Germany, which was eliminated from the tournament earlier than expected.
