Posted November 14, 2018 06:02:56 Sport equipment is getting more and more popular, as more and better sports facilities are opening and more and easier to find, and the demand for it is skyrocketing.
The new normal is the idea that the average American household is looking for more and cheaper sports equipment, said Robyn Pritchard, vice president of product and research at Sports Retailers Association.
“There is this notion that the cost of equipment is going down and we’re buying less of it.
Well, that’s not true,” she said.”
What we’re seeing is that we’re actually purchasing more of it.”
For instance, in 2017, the average household spent $1,200 on a gym membership, according to the Sports Retailer Association.
That’s a 17 per cent increase from a year earlier, and a more than 1.5 per cent jump from a decade earlier.
The average American home spent $2,700 on sports equipment in 2016.
That jumped to $2.8 million in 2017.
But, in some ways, the trend is not surprising.
The average American spends just $3,000 a year on their gym membership.
And the number of households with more than one gym membership has doubled since 2016.
“The trend of purchasing more gym equipment has been growing for the last few years, and it’s been growing at a slower pace than the growth of household incomes,” said Pritcher.
“We are now seeing a real, real increase in the cost for most people, so we’re certainly not seeing the same decline in the amount of money people are spending on sports gear.”
Sports equipment is a growing segment of the market.
It is now worth an estimated $6.5 trillion, up more than 25 per cent since 2015.
And that is only the beginning of a trend.
In 2018, the number one-selling gym equipment brand in the U.S. was the Olympic Training Center (OTC:OTC) and the second-largest was CrossFit.
That trend will only continue.
“In the near term, the growth in the market for fitness equipment will continue to accelerate and that will continue as people are moving into the gym more,” Pritch said.
But in the longer term, she said there are a number of things that will be changing in the gym.
“When you’re in a gym you’re not just sitting at a table, you’re also playing basketball, soccer, volleyball, or just doing cardio.
You’re interacting with the gym staff,” she added.”
You’re interacting, so you’re interacting physically.
There are some other things that are changing in terms of the amount and variety of activities you can engage in.”
Pritchard said the trend will not stop there.
“With the increased demand for fitness gear, there will be a lot of demand for sports equipment,” she noted.
“This is a trend that we are going to see throughout the entire lifespan of the fitness equipment industry.
We’re not going to be able to keep up with it.”
For now, the sport-specific equipment is just starting to pick up steam.
So, we’re going to keep it in the high gear and let it go to the low gear, as we always have.
“And for the average person, the big question is, will the trend change over time?”
It’s hard to say.
We do see that there is more interest in gym equipment as more people become more aware of how to use it,” said Mike Schumacher, executive vice-president and general manager of Fitness Training and Conditioning Solutions, Inc.”
People are becoming more comfortable using it in various settings and different scenarios, so that’s going to continue to drive growth for the industry.
“In a world where athletes compete for medals and the national anthem is played for TV in arenas, why not make it a more pleasurable experience for the masses?”
There are some sports that have become so popular that they have become a part of the culture, so people want to participate in them, but that’s also the reality of our society,” Pichard said.
