Sporting goods in the United Kingdom (UK)

Sports goods retail has an impressive presence in the UK apparel market. In fact, two of the most ambitious names in UK retail are in sports fashion: JD Sports and Sports Direct. Over the past decade, Sports Direct more than doubled its group revenue and grew its profits to over one and a half billion British pounds. JD Sports’ transformation from a sportswear retailer to a multi-brand company with high profile sports sponsorships has been even more dramatic. Since 2020, the company’s annual group revenue reached over six billion British pounds. Over the course of the last decade, and especially during 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic, both companies expanded their impact on British high streets, while many other sports and activewear brands, such as Mileta Sports and Rohan Designs, had experienced financial declines.

It would be fair to say that shoes and sneakers are the crown jewels of the sporting goods industry. Recent consumer surveys revealed that when it comes to sneakers, the UK had a penchant for Adidas and Nike. While the two global giants of sportswear were cherished over other sports shoe brands, Adidas was also a popular consumer choice for its branded personal care products. Consumer spending behavior as traced by the Office for National Statistics also showed that increasingly more and more people were buying sports goods and clothing via online channels. When looking for sportswear products on the web, some of the most common search terms used in the UK in 2020 included “running jacket women” and “best running shoes for men."

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