2. Dedications
I wish to thank my immediate family for their support throughout the period of this dissertation,
most of all I thank my mother for her perseverance and the way she was able to teach me about the
meaning of hard work and the necessity to pursue higher education to fulfil future ambitions, I’d
also like to thank my grandfather for his endless support also my uncle and father for their words of
encouragement. Lastly, I’d like to thank Seran for her proofreading and her words of wisdom which
kept me motivated and focused on the task at hand.
Abstract
This research attempts to observe the sports apparel industry through a series of narrowed
down perspectives such as consumer’s thoughts on corporate social responsibility, why
certain sports companies have much more strength in comparison to others will be
discussed through a series of strategy based findings secondly the prime motivating factors
for the purchase of sports apparel was also discussed along with what peoples favourite
brands are, whether or not sports apparel products have any symbolism within them which
can be used to enhance ones social relationship or status within society and what people’s
uses for them are as it has been speculated that they are no longer being used for sporting
activities but rather have become fashionable items, these aims will were addressed
through the use of surveys and interviews then summarised within the analysis section
people agreed that social responsibility was important for them whilst making a purchase,
price and style were the prime motivating factors along with others such as style, people did
not believe that sports apparel affected them in any way socially, sports items were also
discovered to being used as both fashionable and sports related wear, peoples favourite
brands consisted mainly of Nike and Adidas, whilst these two companies strategies were
4. Table of contents
1.1 Brief Introduction
1.2The sports apparel industry today
1.3The main competitors/major players/consumers favourite Brands
1.4The main stores/distributors
1.5 Most commonly bought items and their uses
1.6 The sports apparel industry today continued..
1.7 The rationale behind the assignment and objectives
2.1 Literature Review
2.2 Consumer demographics and uses of sports products
2.3 Strategies utilised by companies and distributors
2.4 The recessionary period: Distributors
2.5 Can Sporting events influence sales?
2.6 Intangible assets and resources
5. 2.7 creative control: the power of sponsorship
2.8 The influence of Branding
3.1 Can Sports products define an individual socially?
3.2 Symbolic Meaning and Values
3.3 Commodity Fetishism
4.1 Motivations for the purchase of sports apparel
4.2 Motivating factors Smith (2009)
4.3 Continuation on motivating factors is price really the prime
factor?
5.1 Importance of CSR
5.2 Consumer Response
5.3 Ethical consumption and consumer perspectives
5.4 Further research
6. 6.1 Methodology
6.2 introduction
6.3 Rational and purpose of the research
6.4 Data Gathering
6.5 Sample Size
6.6 Data Analysis methods used
6.7 Chi squared test
6.8 Frequency Distribution
6.9 Standard deviation
6.10 Interview research methods
6.11 Survey questions asked
6.12 Limitations and weaknesses of research
7.1 Findings and analysis
8. Introduction
This dissertation will attempt to observe the sports apparel industry through a narrow
multitude of perspectives firstly beginning within the introduction to give a background
understanding of this particular field within contemporary society.
The sports apparel industry today
Within past and present history of mass consumerism sales of sports apparel related products have
constituted a vast majority of the sports industry’s net worth overall with some speculating that
these very sales hold a 20% stake in the aforementioned market (sport England P 3 2005) making it
joint first with sports subscriptions fees which also holds the same percentage lastly followed in third
place by sports equipment which constituted approximately 19% of the market. (Sport England P 3
2005. More recently in 2011 it was estimated that consumers spent 4.5 billion pounds on sports
apparel including clothing and footwear (Keynote 2011) this was just over 10% of the actual clothing
market within the United Kingdom(Adams, Caplan P 19 2007).
The main players/competitors
The market is dominated by two distinct groups Nike and Addidas which hold 18 and 15% stake in
the national sport clothing market(Marketingweek 2011) this is only strengthened by the fact that
Nike owns Converse and Umbro (BBC 2007)whereas Addidas brought out the dying brand of
Reebok(BBC 2005) thereby creating a hostile environment in which to operate in for their rivals.
Their closest counterparts consist of companies such as Timberland, Puma, Lacoste, K Swiss and are
unable to keep up with the trend setting capabilities of the aforementioned companies. Their
9. worldwide profits in chronological order were as follows 870m (Timberland 2011), 820m(Puma
2012) 92m (K swiss 2011). Whereas Nikes overall profits superseded them totalling $5.8bn or
£3.7bn(BBC 2011) following in a typical rivalry like fashion Addidas announced that its profits
totalled 1.7bn Euros(Addidas 2012).
The main distributors/stores
In a recent study conducted by Mintel the most common sports retailers with consumers over the
age of 16 were as follows Sports direct 39%, JJB sports 35%, an internet based shopping 25% JD
sports 21% (Mintel 2011).
Most commonly bought items and their uses
The most commonly sold items are footwear and miscellaneous clothing items ranging from hoodies
to tracksuits, however there is somewhat of a paradoxical element regarding their usages by
consumers, despite being designated for use in sports related activities a vast majority of people
choose to put them to use as normal everyday clothing, this can be regarded as a motivating factor
in the purchasing of such goods and will be discussed throughout the course of this assignment, in
attempting to decipher the reasons for the rise of this particular type of clothing’s rise in popularity
for people aged 18-25.
Moving away from consumer demographics, and back onto the topic regarding factors
which influence consumers to purchase sports apparel there has been changes within this
field for example it should be noted that sports clothes are no longer being used for their
intended purpose of sports related activities. Studies conducted by Mintel 2011 found that
despite the bestselling sporting items consisting of hoodies, tracksuits and footwear
approximately 42% of respondents who took part in their survey do not engage in any such
events which is estimated to be around 7.8-10.3 million a statistic synonymous with the
10. rising obesity levels within the United Kingdom.(Mintel 2011) whilst similar research
conducted by GFK 2009 found that females in particular were more likelier to purchase
sports apparel for leisurely wear.
Figure 1: percentage of sports participants
The sports apparel industry today continued
Continuing on the description of the sports apparel industry, despite the highlighted findings thus
far, it should be mentioned that the sports apparel market has to some extent regressed and stalled
in terms of potential growth for a variety of reasons. Firstly is the current economic climate which is
in recession has affected the salaries of consumers worldwide thus reducing the amount of products
sold by conglomerates, secondly the rising cost of manufacturing products has also affected sales
alongside the shortage of cotton which has in part played a role in the rising manufacturing
costs(Keynote 2011). For example when the recession began in late 2009 Addidas had approximately
11. 93% fewer profits than expected for a routine monthly report(Sky news 2009) Whilst in 2012 Nike
was reporting that its yearly profits were not consistent with their predictions and that sales.
