A landmark new report from the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI), developed with Oliver Wyman, attempts to quantify that relationship for the first time. The Industry That Moves the World estimates that sporting goods contribute $675 billion to global GDP each year and support 28 million jobs – around one in every 125 jobs worldwide.

But the deeper message within the report is not really about the size of the industry. It is that economic growth, innovation, participation and public health are increasingly interconnected – and that government policy can either strengthen or weaken that relationship.

An economic engine hiding in plain sight

The scale revealed by the research is significant. The industry generates approximately $614 billion in annual revenue across value chains spanning 62 manufacturing countries and 210 consumer markets. Its $675 billion total GDP contribution represents around 0.6% of global economic output, comparable with the annual economies of Belgium or Sweden.

Sporting goods also represent around 30% of core-industry revenues within a wider global sports economy currently estimated at $2.3 trillion and projected to reach $3.7 trillion by 2030.

That footprint extends well beyond multinational brands. Around 10.5 million people are directly employed by the sector, while its direct tax contribution is estimated at $120 billion annually, rising to around $230 billion when supply-chain and workforce spending effects are included.

“For decades, the sporting goods industry has invested in innovation, enabled participation and performance, and supported economies, jobs and communities around the world,” says WFSGI CEO Emma Zwiebler. “Yet until now, there has been no comprehensive assessment of the industry’s global economic contribution and its broader role in shaping healthier, more active societies.”

Innovation that reaches beyond elite sport

One of the report’s more revealing findings concerns innovation. Sports-related patent filings have increased by 7.6% annually over the past decade – more than 70% faster than patenting overall – driven by investment in areas including materials science, biomechanics and advanced manufacturing.

The research also exposes the complexity behind apparently simple products. One major running brand has a supply chain spanning 19 countries and territories across four production tiers, while producing a conventional shoe upper can involve at least 200 manufacturing steps. Around 70% of disclosed sporting goods manufacturing facilities are concentrated in just six hubs: Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Chinese Taipei and Viet Nam.

That matters because innovation is not confined to brand headquarters. Research, design, manufacturing technology, automation and materials processing are distributed across a highly interconnected global ecosystem.

The participation economy

Where the report becomes particularly relevant to the wider sports sector is in its treatment of participation.

Sporting goods companies provided an estimated $5 billion in cash sponsorship during 2024, alongside significant product and value-in-kind support, and remain the largest single source of athlete sponsorship of any industry.

But WFSGI and Oliver Wyman argue that the relationship runs in both directions. More participation creates demand, which supports industry growth and further investment; falling participation damages both business and society.

That creates a striking economic equation. Some 1.8 billion adults currently fail to meet recommended physical activity levels, with inactivity projected to reach 35% by 2030. The report estimates that declining participation could put $133 billion in future sporting goods revenues at risk by the end of the decade.

Tony Simpson, Partner and Global Sport Industry Lead at Oliver Wyman, describes that connection succinctly:

“Greater participation supports industry growth and continued investment in innovation, while also contributing to healthier populations and stronger economies.”

When policy works against participation

Perhaps the report’s strongest argument concerns the apparent contradiction between public health policy and trade policy.

Sporting goods face an average applied tariff of 14.1% – almost three times the 5.2% average across all traded goods and more than seven times the roughly 2% applied to medicines. The report argues that tariffs, consumption taxes and compliance costs ultimately feed into the price consumers pay to participate.

The comparison becomes even more striking when set against inactivity. WFSGI estimates that global tariffs on sporting goods generate between $8 billion and $15 billion annually, while the direct annual cost of physical inactivity to health systems is estimated at $30–48 billion. Meanwhile, meeting global activity targets could potentially unlock between $314 billion and $446 billion in annual GDP.

In other words, governments can be spending billions encouraging people to become more active while simultaneously taxing some of the products that enable that activity as discretionary consumer goods.

“At a time when physical inactivity is rising globally, we should be looking at how policy can make sport more accessible for people of all ages and backgrounds,” says Zwiebler. “Governments, industry and society all have a role to play in aligning policy to keep barriers to participation as low as possible.”

From economic footprint to sporting impact

The significance of The Industry That Moves the World therefore lies beyond its headline $675 billion valuation.

It presents sporting goods as part of the infrastructure of participation – connecting manufacturers and brands with athletes, federations, clubs, communities and ultimately public health. WFSGI consequently identifies three priorities: more resilient trade frameworks, fiscal and regulatory policies that recognise the connection between affordability and participation, and greater public-private cooperation linking industry capabilities with health, industrial and sporting objectives.

For sport, that is perhaps the report’s most important contribution. It provides evidence for something often discussed but rarely quantified: participation is not simply a social outcome sitting alongside economic growth. Within the global sports ecosystem, the two are increasingly dependent upon each other.