The Industry that Moves the World, the first-ever assessment of the sector's economic footprint, was released today by the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) in collaboration with Oliver Wyman, a Marsh business. According to this landmark report, the sporting goods industry contributes an estimated $675 billion to global GDP each year – roughly 0.6% of world economic output and comparable to the entire annual GDP of Belgium and supports 28 million jobs globally, one in every 125 jobs on the planet.
The report provides a detailed breakdown of the industry's economic footprint across revenue, employment, tax contribution, and innovation, alongside the trade, fiscal, and health policy environment in which it operates. It also highlights how every stage of physical activity and sport, from grassroots participation and professional competition to sports tourism, depends on the products, sponsorship, and innovation the industry provides.
Sporting goods face an average applied tariff of 14.1%, nearly three times the rate applied across all traded goods. The report recognises the penalty is rooted in the industry’s own sophistication – the technical, multi-country production that makes sporting goods effective for health and performance is the same characteristic that exposes it to repeated tariff charges as materials, components, and finished products cross borders. What makes the products good for people makes them expensive to trade and in turn, discretionary items in many households.
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