Retail sales of hunting and firearms showed the greatest category sales percentage increase in 2007, a 7% bump to $4.0 billion, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.
In equipment categories with sales of more than $1 billion in 2007, the greatest percentage growth in this category came from air guns, which showed a 15% increase to $283.7 million.
In the larger-volume products, rifles ($879.8 million) increased 10%, shotguns ($699.2 million), 7%, and ammunition sales rose 6% to $1 billion. Optics showed a 3% increase to nearly $1.1 billion.
For 2008, sporting goods sales are forecast to reach $53.4 billion, according to NSGA estimates.
Exercise equipment remained the largest individual equipment category surveyed by NSGA. Sales of exercise equipment increased 5% to $5.5 billion.
These figures come from “The Sporting Goods Market in 2008,” a copyrighted NSGA consumer study that projects 2007 purchases of sporting goods products based on a survey of 100,000 U.S. households. National Family Opinion, Inc. (NFO) maintains the consumer panel used in the survey, which is balanced to parallel actual American household distribution as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Census, so that the data can be projected nationally.
