The $614B question facing sporting goods

Hi {{first_name}},

Welcome to October’s edition of Sports + Outdoor Uncovered.

This month, we're exploring an industry in transition. From Rossignol's ambitions beyond winter sports to the challenges of building a nutrition brand from scratch, there's plenty happening across sports and outdoor.

We've also got the latest leadership moves, a look at how AI is reshaping recruitment, and a question worth considering: where will the next wave of industry growth really come from?

Let's get into it.

Rossignol is best known for its winter sports heritage. But the French brand has bigger ambitions, and trail running is becoming an increasingly important part of the picture.

Its trail running range, launched just two years ago, grew around 70% in its second season, with distribution now spanning approximately 200 specialist stores in France and almost as many in the US.

The ambition? Surpass €100 million in apparel and footwear sales within the next three to four years, with trail running helping to drive business beyond the winter months.

There's momentum elsewhere, too. Rossignol's sales in China have grown from around €2 million to €10 million, while CEO Vincent Wauters remains optimistic about the group's prospects in Nordic skiing.

But it's not all straightforward. Despite sales reaching €346 million in its latest financial year, Rossignol has fallen short of its original €500 million target for 2026, with challenging snow conditions and market disruption among the contributing factors.

Why it matters: Rossignol's strategy highlights a wider opportunity for established winter sports brands: using adjacent categories to build year-round relevance, diversify revenue and reduce dependence on snow conditions.

There's plenty more to this story. Click the Sporting Goods Report logo below to read Barbara Smit's full article.

Source: Sporting Goods Report. Article by Barbara Smit.

Watch this month’s episode on Youtube ↓

What happens when you spend five years building a product everyone tells you can't be made?

In the latest Sports + Outdoor Mentors episode, Dan sits down with Chris Bellamy and Anouck Grau, co-founders of YANAA, the sports nutrition challenger swapping conventional energy gels for savoury, real-food alternatives.

What began with a homemade purée shared on a bike ride became a five-year entrepreneurial journey, including three years of product development, significant personal investment and plenty of setbacks.

And despite finally bringing YANAA to market, the founders admit they're now facing perhaps their toughest challenge yet.

In this conversation:

Want to hear the full story? Watch the conversation on Youtube, or listen on your favourite platform below.

New roles, new brands and some notable industry moves. Here's who's been changing seats this month.

What we're seeing: There's a distinctly Nordic flavour to this month's leadership moves, with three CEO appointments involving Norwegian outdoor brands, including an unusual crossover between Bergans of Norway and Brav.

Meanwhile, Nike and Puma are bringing experienced industry leaders into key European markets, highlighting the continued importance of regional commercial leadership.

AI is changing both sides of recruitment.

Candidates can now tailor CVs and cover letters to a job description in seconds. Meanwhile, employers faced with hundreds of applications are increasingly turning to technology to screen and shortlist them.

The risk? An AI arms race, with AI-optimised applications competing against AI-powered screening systems.

There are benefits to both. But a perfectly matched CV doesn't necessarily reveal what someone has achieved, how they lead people or whether they'll thrive in a particular organisation.

Equally, the strongest candidate might not be the one whose experience most closely matches a job description. Transferable skills, judgement and potential can be harder to identify on paper.

The irony? As AI becomes more prevalent in recruitment, human interaction could become more valuable, not less.

Technology can help identify candidates. But understanding the person behind the application still requires thoughtful, meaningful conversation.

The sporting goods industry generates an extraordinary $614 billion in annual revenue, according to a new report from the WFSGI and Oliver Wyman.

There's more to this story than the headline figure. The industry's future growth will depend, in part, on getting more people involved in sport and physical activity.

Today, around 1.8 billion adults aren't sufficiently physically active. And the report estimates that declining participation could put $133 billion in projected sporting goods revenue at risk by 2030.

That's a remarkable figure.

We spend plenty of time discussing emerging markets, challenger brands and new product categories. All important.

But perhaps one of our biggest opportunities is more fundamental: making it easier and more affordable for people to get active.

For brands and industry leaders, that raises an interesting question. Are we investing enough in growing participation, rather than simply competing for existing consumers?

I regularly share thoughts like this on the industry, brands and people shaping it. Follow me on LinkedIn →

That's all for October's Sports + Outdoor Uncovered. Thanks for reading!

We'd love to hear what you think. Which stories caught your attention? What would you like to see more of? And is there anything we're missing?

We're all ears.

See you next month,

–Dan