Sports footwear market should resume high trajectory

São Paulo-After two years of decline, the Brazilian market for athletic shoes should grow back. According to the consulting firm Euromonitor International, the sale of these products should move R$ 12.71 billion in Brazil this year, up 1 percent compared to 2016.
"The clothing and footwear of high performance must present slightly better performance compared to the outdoor segment [which includes shoes for trekking and climbing], since it is expected that more people aware of health concerns and that motivate the practice of physical activities, especially in academia," said research analyst Euromonitor International Guilherme Machado.
He highlighted the increase in the number of street racers, with activity gaining space as one of the most popular outdoor sports among Brazilians. "These corridors often invest more in your clothing, on purchase of special sneakers and t-shirts fast-drying", he added.
The performance footwear market, which includes racing, soccer and tennis Academy, is the largest of the three categories accompanied by consultancy and must move about from 6.80 R$ billion this year. Already the sports-inspired footwear category appears in second place with estimated to move approximately R$ 3.89 billion in sales during 2017. Finally, the outdoor category with rotating forecast R$ 2.02 billion.
But it is in performance the competition is fiercer with emphasis on the performance of the Giants Nike and Adidas, which despite strong presence in football, are fighting for new street racers.
"Race is our niche of higher performance and continues to be a tremendous source of innovation and growth. Also continues to be one of the most influential and biggest drivers of our business of sports clothing, "said the President of the Nike brand, Trevor Edwards, in a teleconference with analysts.
Nike still has the Nike + app Run Club, one of the pioneers in the field, as part of the strategy to get closer to the public and encourage potential consumers.
Despite the efforts of the company, which invests heavily in marketing, sales revenue in Brazil fell 5% in the last year, "reflecting mainly macroeconomic challenges," Nike, in a report. Sought, the Press Office of the company did not return.
The competitor Adidas also bet on the expansion of the segment and, in Brazil, has two units of RunBase installed, one in São Paulo and one in Rio de Janeiro. The site aims to "support the amateur runners", free of charge, with tennis and loan locker room.
The company''s revenue in Latin America had increased by 16% last year, with the exception of Brazil "where sales have increased at a rate of one digit low", according to Adidas, in results report.
In the annual presentation, the company pointed out that the uncertainty in the macroeconomic scenario in Latin America. In Brazil, the deal should go through restructuring, but the details have not been announced. Adidas spokesman couldn''t answer the story until the closure of this edition.
Nationals
The dispute of the Giants by niche race opened space so that other companies could move into other markets, such as the brazilian Cambuci, owner of the Penalty mark, which attained leadership in football footwear in Brazil.
"Last year was difficult for the footwear sector as a whole, with a fall in production, but we review our strategies, that was very focused on sponsorship to football clubs and forward that investment in areas in which we believe that we could grow," said the Group''s Executive Director DCI Cambuci, César Ferreira.
According to him, the company''s contributions in 2016 were directed to the development of soccer footwear of higher added value, with the use of more technology, but positioning as an intermediate product in the market.
"Achieving the leadership in football was a surprise for us, because that was not the goal," said he. The improvement in Cambuci, logistics structure to ensure faster delivery of products, also contributed to raise sales.
"As we have factory in Brazil, that gives us an advantage of faster delivery than competitors who import," said Ferreira. After zoom in 20% the volume of sales in the category of football, he hopes to register new highs on the result of 2017.
Already sales of sports shoes of brazilian Alpargatas, owner of the brand Topper, Queen and Timberland, retreated 29.7% from January to September last year. "In Brazil, the quantity sold of Mizuno shoes retreated, mainly because demand for basic models has not been fully met," explained the Sneakers, in a report, stating that maintains the strategy to nationalize the production of the brand.
In the assessment of the Managing Director of the consultancy Iemi market intelligence, Marcelo Prado, the current Exchange level remains favorable for the local product in relation to the imported and also makes the brazilian industry of sports shoes a potential exporter to regional markets.
"The sports fashion market today is very internationalized, so this movement to license international brands and produce locally, or export or complement the mix with import is normal", said the expert.
But the advancement of national sporting exports, weighed Prado, still depends on the improving trade relations of Brazil. "The market for sports shoes Brazilians is very protective and coming up also in the protectionism of other countries when trying to enter new markets," he said.
According to the Iemi, national sports footwear production should grow 3.1 percent this year to 71,350,000. Imports must retreat to 22% and the export pairs 3,630,000 grow 15.2 percent to 2,380,000 of pairs.