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By: Jeff James

Listed Under: Top Story

Published: Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Are you a train-alone type of person or do you prefer the togetherness of team sports? Personal goals are a way of measuring success when running your most recent marathon, but would you get more of a thrill from hitting a quick century and receiving the accolades from your cricketing team-mates? It appears the vast majority of people in Great Britain prefer to play individual sports.

To the end of June 2010, NPD’s Online Consumer Data reveals that purchases of apparel and footwear to be used for sport were 70 per cent for individual activity and 30 per cent for team sports. This data can be compared to the Sport England study, which tracked people’s participation in sport week by week, and where the amount of people actively participating in individual sports reached almost 80 per cent.

TEAM SALES
The team market is made up largely of males and children. Sales to females 14-plus in this sector are on the decline and fell by 16 per cent over the past 12 months. Overall sales over the 12 months to June 2010 in this market reached over £500million, with males 14-plus accounting for almost £300million. Football constitutes the majority of the overall sector, but there is still well over £100million worth of sales attributed to other sports.

Similar to football, rugby and cricket sales are affected by seasonal peaks and troughs. Cricket sales are a guarantee in the summer months, while rugby peaks in the winter. However, although there is an increased level of interest, females do not typically participate in these sports, with football particularly seeing the greatest decline. In contrast, sports such as basketball, hockey and netball are more popular among females and generated over £10million worth of sales over the 12 months to June 2010.

Aside from football, have females begun to drift away from individual sports in favour of team games? It is not resounding, but the answer is no. The volume of sportswear sold to females 14-plus for individual purposes is increasing.

INVIGORATED
The success of the various toning shoes on the market has invigorated the women’s fitness category. Reebok, Skechers, MBT and New Balance are all releasing new products into the GB market on the back of significant gains in the US, where sales are set to reach $1.5billion by the end of the year.

NPD’s Online Consumer Panel sees gym, running and aerobics accounting for over half of female lone sporting activities, with running, because of its relatively low cost, proving increasingly popular. However, the number of females taking regular exercise has declined heavily, and this is across all sporting activities. Occasional activity is growing when it comes to individual sports, particularly mountaineering and alpine skiing.

A more worrying trend is the decline in sports participation among the 14-24-year-old age group throughout Europe. There has been some evidence that the Nintendo Wii has boosted the number of people taking part in ‘stay at home’ fitness, particularly among females. Although a higher percentage of women will train on their own than men, they are now spending less on doing so than they did 12 months ago - and there’s no prizes for guessing that is it gym wear that is driving prices down.

So it would be easy to surmise that gym activity is on the slide, but currently it is still the most popular activity among females. Running is most popular among males, followed closely by football. What is clear is that large proportions of males prefer to take part in team sports, while females prefer individual sports and fitness activities.

The NPD Group monitors the sales of sports footwear and apparel in many countries around the world. For more information contact The NPD Group sports team on 01932 355580.