The Future of Sports Brands
To sell direct or not? Paul Sherratt of Solutions for Sport looks at the future of the sports brands.
evolve at pace. As the boundaries between sports brands and sports retailers become more and more blurred, retailers become brands and brands become retailers. But what does this mean for the
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future of sports retailing and when and how do brands looking to make the transition from wholesaler to direct seller make the shiſt?
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he face of the UK and global sporting goods industry continues to change and
THE BACKGROUND When Sports Direct purchased Donnay all those years ago, little did we know that the evolution of the ‘in house’ brand strategy would influence the UK market place as much as it has. It is now commonplace for
leading high street and online retailers to own a stable of brands and to use them to maximise their margins and to draw consumers in with attractive discounts. Many of these brands such as Dunlop and
Slazenger have built global brand equity and as such, this enhances the value of the sales proposition in the consumer’s eyes. These brands are core business
drivers sitting alongside the premium brands that draw the consumers in, but don’t necessarily drive the volume of sales. So where does that leave the sports brands who are not retailer owned and how will they compete in the future? Will they be happy to merely act as the ‘sprat that catches the mackerel’ or will they advance
their own retail strategies to wrestle an element of control back?
THE OPTIONS The large global players are already well advanced in the development of their own retail strategy with adidas group stating - “Our Retail segment’s strategic vision is to become one of the top retailers in the world; retail plays an important role for the growth of our group and our brands.”
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