Blurring lines of differentiation between sports apparel and garments used for casual, business, everyday or street wear, continue to define an ever-changing landscape in the sports and fitness clothing market. These obscuring differences between sports apparel, fitness clothing, and casual, active wear are leading to an interesting change in target audiences. Changing lifestyles, and attitude towards fitness outerwear, are dictating fashion trends with women exhibiting a proclivity towards fashionable workout wear. Growing emphasis on versatility, convenience, fashion, comfort, style, and performance is creating a strong demand for sports and fitness clothing, which offers both functional performance and style appeal. In terms of consumption growth and overall apparel market share, the segment is expected to garner the highest growth.
Aging-but-act women's coats ive population in the US, Japan and Europe, and emerging markets such as Asia and Latin America present attractive opportunities for apparel makers. Women represent a highly lucrative target audience as they increasingly take up newer sports. On the retail front, conventional sporting goods players vie with fashion stores while department stores compete with mass merchandisers and sporting goods chains, in a bid to capture a pie of this lucrative market. Further, the dynamics of sports and fitness clothing companies in the retail industry would increase consolidation activity among the players. Consumers are increasingly exhibiting widely disparate preferences, classy tastes, and a marked inclination towards those that offer convenience, performance, flexibility and class. Consumers are ready to pay more for performance characteristics that might facilitate them to gain considerable competitive advantage in their sports pursuit. Fabric characteristics such as temperature regulation, friction reduction, moisture management, stretch, lightness, and wind and water resistance are in popular demand. Downstream integration of clothing manufacturers in distribution as evidenced in chains, single brand stores, and the 'shop within a shop' concept, coupled with growth of private-labels, marks a strong trend towards brand strengthening and greater retail concentration
The sports apparel market is highly dynamic and fragmented in nature. The industry witnessed a growing onslaught of powerful brands ranging from basic to leading fashion names. The more established sports brands, popular for genuineness, convenience and sophisticated technology, are continuously striving to maintain their market share. With versatility and functionality largely gaining importance, vendors are responding by introducing sports and fitness apparel in various stylish designs for both men and women. In this regard, major sports apparel companies are partnering with famous designers to introduce innovative stylish apparel brands and offer a new look to the existing brands to attract consumers. Favorable trends such as a stylish teenage marketplace, growing baby boomer segment, and a tendency towards casual dress in the workplace are expected to drive consumption growth of sports apparel and fitness clothing.
The global market for sports and fitness clothing is poised to grow due to sturdy sales in Asian markets which exhibited robust value and volume sales even in midst of recession. The burgeoning Asia-Pacific, Latin America and other evolving markets such as Middle East and Africa logged encouraging positive growth patterns in 2008, even as other countries worldwide registered sales erosions during the year. The situation worsened in 2009, with sales in developed and mature countries including North America, Europe and Japan falling significantly. Developing economies on the other hand, managed to survive the year with marginal losses. Although the sales of apparel used in snow sports increased in 2008 and 2009, the actual contribution to the overall sports industry has been below average, reflected in the declining sales of sports apparel in 2009, particularly in the US and Europe.
The US constitutes the world's single largest and most developed regional market for sports and fitness clothing, as stated by the new research report on Sports and Fitness Clothing. Europe and Asia-Pacific trail behind as the other significant markets, with the three regions garnering a gigantic consolidated share of the world market. With respect to fastest growth potential, Asia-Pacific, spurred by rapidly expanding markets of India, China, Hong Kong and Australia among others is forecast to race ahead at the highest CAGR of over 4.0% through 2015. The Sports Apparel product segment commands a sizeable chunk of the global sports and fitness clothing market.
The sportswear market worldwide is characterized by severe competition among international powerhouses, which have been successful in capturing considerable share in the sports apparel market. Mirroring consolidation trends in industries worldwide, the sports apparel market also witnessed numerous mergers and acquisitions. The acquisition of the US stalwart Reebok by the German giant adidas in 2006 represents a landmark acquisition in the industry. Key market participants profiled in the report include Adidas AG, Reebok, Algo Group, Amer Sports Corporation, Ashworth Inc, ASICS America Corporation, Benetton Group S.p.A, Billabong International Limited, Blacks Leisure Group Plc, Columbia Sportswear Company, Descente Ltd., Eddie Bauer Inc., Escada AG, Everlast Worldwide Inc., Fila Online Inc., Foot Locker Inc., FUBU, Gap Inc., Banana Republic, Old Navy, Gildan Activewear Inc., Hanesbrands Inc., Hugo Boss AG, Jacques Moret Inc., JJB Sports Plc., among several others.
The research report titled "Sports and Fitness Clothing: A Global Strategic Business Report" announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of the industry outlook, current scenario, consumer and demographic profile, product overview, product innovations, recent industry activity and profiles of companies worldwide. Analysis and overview is provided for major geographic markets such as US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Rest of World. Market analytics are provided in value (US$) terms for product segments including Sports Apparel, and Fitness Clothing. The study also presents historic data for an insight into market evolution over the period 2000 through 2006
For more details about this comprehensive market research report, please visit – http://www.strategyr.com/Sports_and_Fitness_Clothing_Market_Report.asp
About Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (GIA) is a reputed publisher of off-the-shelf market research. Founded in 1987, the company is globally recognized as one of the world's largest market research publishers. The company employs over 800 people worldwide and publishes more than 1200 full-scale research reports each year. Additionally, the company also offers thousands of smaller research products including company reports, market trend reports, and industry reports encompassing all major industries worldwide.
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