Product sales in the sporting goods, fitness, and related recreation markets grew 4.3% last year, building on record sales growth in 2021. That’s the headline fact from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s (SFIA) 2023 Manufacturers’ Sales by Category Report. The report, supported by SMS USA, 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, and provides comparisons to revenues from previous years.

“Maintaining a better than 4% growth rate across all industry categories in 2022 after the huge year we saw in 2021 is a good performance,” says Tom Cove, President & CEO, SFIA. “It has been a crazy three years, obviously, but to maintain healthy growth rates as our industry dealt with pandemic restrictions, supply chain disruptions, and soaring inflation speaks both to the sustaining demand Americans have for active lifestyle products and the resilience of our industry.”

Nearly every single category tracked in the report grew in 2022. Total sports equipment saw a 4.1% increase, with snow sports (11.5%), golf (8.3%), scuba and skin diving (7.5%), and water sports (7.4%) leading the way. In addition to growth this year, golf equipment sales are up 70% since 2019 – which in large part has to do with the increase it saw during the pandemic as a COVID-friendly activity.

Total sports apparel and total licensed merchandise also were two categories that saw increases, at 6.4% and 7.1% respectively. Every single item tracked in these categories went up in 2022, with the one exception of a minor 1.8% decrease in branded activewear. Total athletic footwear saw an increase of 2% in 2022, now up 18.1% since 2019, with football (9.1%) and baseball (8.8%) leading the way. Since 2019, the fitness/workout footwear category is up 71.7% overall.

Total exercise equipment was the only major category that showed a decrease last year. The 3.7% decrease is due in large part to the decline in consumer exercise equipment sales in 2022. However, it should be noted that 2021 was the greatest year in sales in fitness equipment history – at 52.7% growth over 2019 numbers – so naturally, it had to decline. Free weights are still up 150% since 2019, followed by exercise benches at 106.7%. While consumer figures are down, institutional exercise equipment saw 3.5% growth after a decline the previous year.

“The impact of inflation on this year’s sales numbers was critically important,” states, Cove. “This report details annual sales figures and presents a trend comparison. At the same time, we note the importance of unit sales analysis to understand the ‘big picture’ in terms of overall industry growth.”

The 2023 Manufacturers’ by Sales Category Report is free to SFIA Members and is available to the public for purchase by clicking here for $250.

The report is provided free of charge to members of the media. If you are interested in a copy of this report or an interview with a member of SFIA, please contact Lisa Futterman at lfutterman@sfia.org.

To view the full press release online, click here.