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A supporting role
There's no denying it, sports supports are not perched at the glamorous end of the retail trade. They are unlikely to ever feature heavily in window displays in general sports retailers in the build-up to Christmas, and some of the fashion-led sports multiples will happily neglect supports. But there is a critical difference between the support product and something a bit more eye-catching, such as a Premier League football shirt: the latter is a product that many consumers want, but the support is what the injured athlete needs. When weekend footballers have a knee problem, they won't even notice the racks of brightly coloured shirts in well-lit areas of the shop. All they will have eyes for is pain relief and pain prevention.
"If you have a niggle you are going to buy a support," states Tony Aries, managing director of LP Supports. "If someone thinks spending £10 on a support is going to ease their injury then they are going to buy one. People are spending a bit less at the moment and the market might dip a bit, but necessity items won't dip that much. I think we will keep an even keel in 2009."
Paul Sherratt, country manager for McDavid in the UK and Ireland, concurs. "Sports supports won't tend to be effected by the slow economy," he says. "Supports are a ‘distress purchase': if you have a problem, an injury, you need a solution as quickly as possible, so you go out and buy a support.
"Sports supports should be one of the key areas to a retailer: they are not seasonal, they don't go out of fashion, so there's no need for seasonal clearance, and the margins are very good. Retailers that embrace sports supports do very well from them. The turnover might not be massive but supports should be one of the most profitable areas of the store."
The demand for supports won't match the summer release of a new football kit, but it has continuity, rain or shine, 12 months a year. The other recession-busting factor for sports supports this year is that while consumers might not be purchasing luxury products such as new cars, five-star vacations and crystal vases, they are still playing sport.
"People will still go and play a game of squash, forget about their worries for a while and come out feeling refreshed," says Aries. "A lot of people find it a release to play some sport, and we are here if they need a bit of support!
"We have a great, hardcore market base in the UK because of the amount of sports people tend to play," he adds. "Apart from winter sports, the UK plays just about every other sport you can imagine, so there is a strong market for the supports sector. Even winter sports have an important role to play too, because if it is a good ski season we will sell a lot more of the sophisticated knee supports. People are also tending to keep fit and active at an older age these days, rather than packing up sports altogether at the age of 40, which has helped our market."
Dave Sanderson, national sales manager for Precision Training, is even predicting growth this year. "2008 was very, very good for us," he says, "due to the quality of our products and the price. Retailers know they are getting value for money with products such as our knee support at £9.99 and elbow support at £7.99, and the recent run of trade shows has been very positive.
"It's onwards and upwards in 2009. We are introducing some new products in April that will be interesting, and so we feel very encouraged, but I am afraid I can't say more about that yet."
Another brand making great strides in the support sector is Neo G, with its Variable Compression System (VCS), which allows the wearer to apply support exactly where they need it, without the support being too tight elsewhere, thereby negating the possibility of deep vein thrombosis. The Neo G product line illustrates that competition in the supports sector is stronger than ever.
Confirmation of the supports manufacturers' confidence going forward comes from the fact that they are bringing new products to market in 2009. In addition to Precision Training, LP Supports is also extending the top-end of its line. Aries also made his apologies for not explaining what we can expect in any detail, just that "two or three patented products will be launched by the middle of the year".
McDavid's Sherratt goes as far as to question why general sports retailers do not devote more shelf space to sports supports, such are their reliability to get tills ringing.
"In the US, where McDavid has over 80% of the market share, McDavid has between five to eight metres of shelf space in all the multiple retailers," he says. "In every single one of those multiples, McDavid is the most profitable brand per square foot, but this is a message that does not seem have got through to the independent sports retailers in the UK."
Sherratt also puts across a strong case for the defence of premium sports supports, like McDavid's all-neoprene range.
"I don't understand why an independent retailer would stock the cheapest supports," he argues. "If a footballer asks for a knee support because he needs to play at the weekend, and he is offered a support at £9.99, he will buy it. If he is offered a support at £14.99, the chances are he will still buy it, because he simply needs a solution. That's another £5 in the retailer's till."
Like in many sectors though, the relevant products ignored on the high street can find fast-moving outlets online and in specialist sports stores. Sherratt confirms that McDavid's online sales have overtaken the high street in the UK. Whereas the high street retailer tends to stock a basic line of affordable supports up to around the £20 mark, skiers with an old injury to protect are going on line to order a heavy-duty, hinged knee brace. A McDavid knee brace will retail at £89.99, but you won't find many in the shops.
Sherratt says online retailers are dong "spectacularly well" at exploiting the long tail: selling the products that the high street stores won't.
Ultimately, a trend in the sports supports market can be identified, and this one will be very hard to buck: there will be a few new products to look forward to in 2009, but the place to find them won't be on the high street.
