It is no surprise that Nike is the most valuable sports business brands worldwide. The Nike brand was valued at close to 36.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, over double the value of second placed ESPN. Nike was also the leading athletic apparel, accessories and footwear company worldwide based on sales. In 2019, Nike generated approximately 39 billion U.S. dollars in sales. Nike is considered the top sports apparel brand choice for American consumers of all genders.
Retail is one of the main sales channels for sporting goods in the U.S. It is handled by sporting goods retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shop, The Sports Authority or Academy Sports & Outdoors. One of the most popular sporting goods retailers is Dick's Sporting Goods. Almost a quarter of respondents in a recent Statista survey stated that they had shopped for sporting goods from Dick's Sporting Goods in the last twelve months. Similarly, more than 20 percent of respondents of another Statista survey said that they purchase sports apparel, sports shoes and sports equipment or gear from the company's online site.
Athletic footwear is an integral part of the sporting goods market in the United States, with product sales of approximately 37 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. In 2018, almost 60 percent of Americans, aged between 30 and 49 years, bought athletic shoes. The leading companies in the footwear segment are Nike and Adidas with revenues of 22.2 and 12.7 billion U.S. dollars respectively in 2018.
Nike and Adidas are also the leading sporting goods manufacturers worldwide in terms of revenue. Other major sporting goods manufacturers with at least 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in revenue are VF Corp., Under Armour, Puma, Asics, and Mizuno.
