Demand for athletic performance shoes doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
In a new report on the outdoor industry from SFIA (Sports & Fitness Industry Association), pickleball, climbing and soccer are among the top five growth sports last year. Pickleball growth climbed 22.8 percent in 2025 to 24.3 million participants. Climbing participants in the category of sport and boulder rose 20.1 percent to 3.2 million, while climbing in the category of traditional, ice and mountaineering rose 14.2 percent to 2.9 million. And indoor climbing participants jumped 13.1 percent to 7.1 million. Soccer saw outdoor participation spike 15.8 percent to 16.8 million, while indoor soccer participation rose 10.5 percent to 6.6 million. In other sporting activities, track and field saw participation increased 10.6 percent to 4.6 million, while trail running participants increased 6.6 percent to 17.2 million.
These increases in outdoor sport participation are likely to climb higher when 2026 numbers become available next year. That in turn suggests that demand for appropriate footwear by athletes will continue to increase as well, whether that’s sneakers, athletic performance shoes or even cleats.
By gender, walking for fitness was the top activity for both men and women, up 0.4 percent to 51.5 million and up 0.4 percent to 64.1 million, respectively.
As for the sporting goods industry, revenue growth remains positive, SFIA said, although there is some pressure on revenue gains due to profitability, cost structures and supply chain dynamics.
“The industry grew 3.4 percent in 2025, but lagged behind overall GDP growth of 5 percent,” SFIA said in a report, noting that historically, it is “uncommon” for the industry to grow faster than GDP.
The report also said the nature of the industry’s growth is shifting. With rising costs and tariff pressures, a portion of recent revenue growth is likely influenced by pricing dynamics than pure demand expansion, the report’s authors concluded. The primary drivers of margin compression are rising material costs, tariff-driven increases and inventory adjustments in an anticipation of price changes. These factors also have created an environment where companies can “maintain revenue but struggle to convert that revenue into profit,” SFIA said.
Tariffs in 2025 ranked as the No. 1 concern across the industry, ranking first regardless of company performance. “This level of alignment suggests that tariffs are not a temporary disruption, but a structural challenge affecting the entire industry,” the report said.
Moreover, the SFIA report also noted that supply chains have not shifted as dramatically as one might have expected. The majority of companies at 69 percent report no change in their sourcing strategies, with only 15.5 percent planning to increase manufacturing in the U.S. That percentage is now “equal to the share planning to source more offshore,” SFIA noted.
This is because global manufacturing in the sporting goods sector, such as supply chains, are deeply embedded, with decades of investment in overseas production infrastructure and reshoring is both costly and time-intensive. The reality is that companies are choose to adapt within existing systems, rather than “fundamentally restructuring their operations.” Adaptation includes absorbing costs, renegotiating supplier relationships, and passing price increases to consumers.
Separately, it is well known that in footwear, athletic shoe manufacturers continue to produce in Vietnamese factories. One of the hurdles to moving production elsewhere is the existence of machinery and required lasts that are already located in the factories currently making the performance shoes.
