Several factors drive growth in athletic footwear, such as increased global sales; awareness about healthy and active lifestyles; rising demand for comfortable footwear; rising demand for innovative footwear designs and technology; population growth and rising disposable income levels. That’s the findings from “Athletic Footwear Market – Global Industry Size, Market Share, Trends, Analysis and forecast, 2012 – 2018,” a report released by Transparency Market Research.
The report finds that Asia Pacific is leading the athletic footwear market as far as manufacturing, and forecasts that it will represent 41.6 percent of the market by 2018. “The North America market is growing at a relatively slower rate, due to high labor cost, raw material cost and strong competition,” the report says. The market is set to grow from $74.7 billion reported in 2011 to $84.4 billion in 2018. That’s 1.8 percent growth.
The shoe insert market is actually the largest segment of the athletic footwear market. It holds 36 percent of the market, and is expected to see more growth over the next few years.
The sports footwear market is expected to grow the fastest; the hiking shoe segment holds 19 percent market share and backpacking boots holds 9 percent market share of the athletic footwear market.