Product sales in the sporting goods, fitness and related recreation markets grew 4.2 percent last year according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s 2024 Manufacturers’ Sales by Category Report.
The report, released today, tracks U.S. wholesale revenues in sporting goods and fitness equipment, athletic footwear, sports apparel, and licensed products, further broken down into more than 30 categories. This annual report provides comparisons to revenues from previous years and includes pickleball as a new product category for 2024.
In 2023, the sporting goods industry grew 4.2 percent compared to 2022, reaching $121.66 billion. This is up 26.8 percent compared to 2019. From 2010-2020, the industry only surpassed a 4 percent annual growth rate once, in 2011 (4.2 percent).
Pickleball had the highest growth rate followed by Team Sports and Snow Sports categories. Pickleball product sales increased 30.7% from 2022.
Team sports category sales did well in 2023 compared to 2022, with many growing over 7 percent. Football, Baseball/Softball, and Basketball all saw growth rates over 10 percent. Football products had the highest team sports category growth at 11.9 percent, followed by Basketball at 10.1 percent and Baseball/Softball at 10 percent. Volleyball was the next highest with 9.3 percent and Ice Hockey with 7.3 percent. The Total sports equipment category reached $32.969 billion in sales in 2023.
“It is encouraging to see so many sports categories doing well, not only on the participation side, but also when it comes to equipment sales,” said Tom Cove, President & CEO, SFIA. “Maintaining an over 4% growth rate across all categories going into 2023, especially following a huge year in 2021, is a great sign, and shows that Americans’ demand for sports and fitness equipment remains very strong.”
Both fitness equipment categories – Consumer and Institutional – increased significantly in 2023. Institutional fitness equipment increased by 11.8 percent and was led by Treadmills (up 23.5 percent), Stair Climbing Machines (up 13.7 percent), Ellipticals (up 12.1 percent), and Group Exercise Bikes (11.3 percent). Consumer equipment was up 8% overall compared to 2022 and was led by Exercise Cycles (up 12.3 percent), Free Weights (up 11.2 percent) and Treadmills (up 10.1 percent). This is particularly notable given the dramatic swings in the sales of fitness equipment, both institutional and consumer, during the pandemic period.
In 2023, total athletic footwear saw an increase of 5.7 percent in 2023, led by fitness/workout shoes at 17.5 percent, followed by Baseball at 10.6 percent and Running at 8.1 percent. Total sports apparel was up 2.9 percent compared to 2022. Every team uniform category increased, with the overall category growing 6.5 percent.
