TRENDSPOTTING


A GLOBAL CHALLENGE W


Simon Cox talks with Michelle Smyth, Head of International Sports & Cycling, at the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI), exploring the global challenge of population inactivity.


hy does the global challenge of population inactivity matter to bike brands, and the bike business?


Increasing numbers of adults and adolescents fail to get even the minimum amount of exercise. You can likely see where this is going. Cycling, as with any other sport and leisure activity, faces the prospect of a rapid decrease in potential new customers, whilst at the same time seeing its existing customer base slowly ageing out (getting older and slowly exiting the market). If this doesn’t grab the attention of our industry, at all levels, nothing will.


36 | January 2025


Michelle, let’s start with those eyewatering World Health Organisation (WHO) inactivity numbers. They’re shocking: A bit of a goosebumps moment whenever I give the figures to people that I’m talking with.


The latest WHO figures came out in June 2024. Adult inactivity levels rose from 28% in 2019 to 31%. Adolescents, 11 to 17-year-olds, see four out of five (81%) not getting enough physical activity. For context, the WHO identifies a physical activity adult as taking a minimum of 150 minutes of physical activity per week, and, for an adolescent, 60 minutes per day.


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