Sports Consumer Behavior

Taking a survey of all types of sports equipment around my house I see a variety of different things that my family and I tend to buy depending on the type of sport or activity anyone is into at the time. At first thinking of the this assignment and reading the instructions I did not think that I had any sports equipment in my household but once I started looking around I noticed that there are a lot of things that can be considered sports equipment like exercise equipment and clothing that I very frequently spend money on.
Lately I had been getting into working out a lot because I want to lose weight for the summer which is right around the corner, and I have had these spurts a lot and have not gone through with the whole thing but each time I always buy something new that will help me to lose weight. I also took into account all the things that my boyfriend buys because most of the time we both buy stuff for his football. Currently he is playing semi-professional football locally for the city we live in and he is constantly buying new things from clothing to balls and pads for his games.
The National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) has a listing of all the different sports categories and the difference each made every year in sales. The sports category I chose to look at is the hunting and firearms category because it seems to show the most significant changes out if all of the other categories. The significant difference I see in the hunting and firearms category is in increase in sales of about $354 million dollars from 2008 to 2009.

Looking at the history of hunting and firearms sales I can see that throughout the years it has continually been a significant increase each year. The only reason I can suggest that there is so much of an interest and increase in this category would be that more and more people are becoming interested in hunting and activities that include the use of firearms, and not to mention the hunters that have been hunting for years always upgrading to the newest and best equipment and firearms.
A different category that is extremely high in value and the highest one of the forecast is exercise. I can identify with this category because I am one of the reasons that industry is so high, I know that there are a lot of people out there like myself that want to lose weight and will try any new thing that comes out for weight loss to see if it works. Looking at the amount that I spend on exercise equipment from the video’s and DVD’s to the weights and he bands and the sneakers and clothes I can see why the exercise industry is so big. People want the next best thing that is going to help them lose weight. A category that is the complete opposite from exercise is the Racquetball category where in the past few years it has had both increases and decreases in sales, but in 2009 was significantly lower than all of the other categories. I think that racquetball is so low in sales because not many people play this sport or for that matter are not too sure of what it is (like me).
These are not one of the mostly popular sports that are played around the United States and for that reason I think is why this category is one of the lowest on this forecast. I think that the more popular a sport is and the more people know about it and have interest in it the more the public is willing to spend on the items for the sport or activity. One of the categories that definitely surprises me in terms of value is football, I know that this is a sport played all around the United States and is very popular but I didn’t realize how low the amount of sales for football equipment.
The only reason I can think of that would make football so low in terms of value would be the fact that the manufacturers make football products so durable and sustainable that they wouldn’t need to be replaced as frequently as other sports and products. Knowing that most of these products are made to stand the toughness of this contact sport is a reason I guess I am not that surprised that the sales are low, these companies are making the best product to with stand everything and takes a lot to break them therefore customers do not have to replace them.
Self-Survey of sports equipment purchased on a yearly basis: Weights -$60 Resistance bands- $30 P 90 X DVD – $125 Other workout videos and DVD’s- $100-$150 Workout sneakers – $200-$300 Workout clothes – $300 Miscellaneous workout equipment- $100 Football cleats- $200 Pads- $100-$200 Jerseys- $150 Footballs – $70 Football tights – $45 Football practice clothing -$200