New data released by the European Outdoor Group's (EOG) State of Trade (SoT) market research programme indicates growth in sell-in value and volume across all categories during 2022.

The EOG State of Trade report covers products sold by over 100 outdoor companies in Europe in the apparel, footwear and hardware markets, including outdoor sell-in figures from multisport or lifestyle brands.

·        Data from the Russian market has been removed from SoT for both 2021 and 2022. 

·        Meanwhile, significant new contributors to the programme have allowed the EOG to make a more accurate assessment of the full market size, reducing the reliance on gap analysis and estimates.

Strongest growth in footwear and accessories

In 2022, the total wholesale value of every product category covered by the State of Trade was €6.1bn ($6.5bn). EOG explains that external factors, including the removal of an entire market (Russia) and the addition of significant new data contributors such as Decathlon, have had a meaningful impact on some of the underlying assumptions made during the data analysis.

After figures for 2021 were adjusted as a result of these factors, the 2022 figure represented a year-on-year change of +11.5%.

The strongest growth was recorded in footwear and accessories, up in value by 20.40% and 19.05% respectively, but there was growth in all categories, with an overall increase of 11.49% in value and 6.31% in volume. The lowest level of growth was in tents and climbing equipment.

Credit: European Outdoor Group (EOG).

Growth of over 10% was reported in value in all regions during 2022. The top three markets – Germany, France and the UK/Ireland – once again accounted for over 50% of the total value of the European outdoor sector. As per the SoT data, the individual market share of each of these barely changed.

Early in May, the European Outdoor Group (EOG) and Sporting Insights launched the Outdoor Market Intelligence Service, a retail sales reporting tool for the industry.

Outdoor Market Intelligence Service rollout

The platform is expected to go live on 7 July following a successful pilot in the UK.

OMIS will deliver detailed, up-to-date market, category and channel-level sell-through data to all contributors, and SKU-level retail sell-through data, with additional filters and market share comparisons, to subscribers. EOG pointed out that the State of Trade and the Outdoor Market Intelligence Service, together, will constitute the European outdoor sector’s “most comprehensive market data and insights programme ever.”

Arne Strate, general secretary at EOG, said: “The EOG’s market insights programme is a cornerstone of both what we offer to our members, and how we represent and advocate for the whole sector. Year-on-year, we have expanded, enhanced and then refined what we do. State of Trade has always been at the heart of that, but we need to align it with real-time, accurate sell-through data, to better serve our members and also give us the collateral that we require for our public affairs work, and to inform our own longer-term priorities.

“The latest State of Trade figures once again demonstrate the resilience and appeal of the outdoor sector, but we’re even more encouraged by the very successful pilot that we completed in the UK for the new Outdoor Market Intelligence Service. This demonstrated its enormous potential, and now we are excited to launch it publicly and we aim to roll it out across Europe. To do that effectively, we need more companies to get involved and derive maximum benefit from either contributing or subscribing, or both.”

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