The U.S. school sporting goods market is booming, with the highest growth rate exceeding 90%

Recently, Matt Powell, a sports industry consultant for the research firm NPD, expressed his views on the future direction of the U.S. sporting goods market based on some data from the third quarter.

Matt Powell said that the revenue growth of some sporting goods has stabilized. Matt Powell cited three examples (golf equipment, rackets and basketball equipment) to prove his point.

He said that during the worst period of the epidemic, sales of golf equipment rebounded sharply. However, data from NPD Retail Tracking Service shows that revenue in the golf equipment market in the third quarter of this year has declined compared with 2020. Among them, sales of golf balls are the same as the same period last year. Although sales of golf products are still very high compared with 2019, Matt Powell does not expect a significant increase in the future.

Similarly, sales of racket sports products have also fallen from recent highs. Although pickleball sales have increased by more than 70%, this does not seem to be able to boost the overall sales rate of racket products. Similar to the situation with golf products, although sales of racket products remain at a high level, Matt Powell expects sales in 2021 to be lower than in 2020.

In addition, he pointed out that basketball equipment is also one of the "star products" during the epidemic . Parents want to keep their children exercising while maintaining social distance, and basketball is one of the best choices. However, basketballs and basketball hoops are "one-time consumption" products. If parents buy these products during the epidemic, they will not need to buy another set in the next few years. Therefore, the overall growth of basketball equipment in the third quarter was not obvious.

However, Matt Powell said that not all sporting goods sales growth has slowed down.

Last year, many school districts canceled or postponed their school sports seasons. This year, most school districts are conducting sports. As a result, sales of sporting goods suitable for school group sports have seen a significant increase in the third quarter of this year compared to 2020. For example, football equipment revenue increased by more than two-thirds, football revenue increased by more than half, lacrosse revenue increased by one-third, hockey revenue increased by nearly 90%, and general protective equipment revenue increased by 80%. Matt Powell expects that sales of these sporting goods will continue to be optimistic, but their gains will slow over time.

USA

Sporting Goods