The sports industry is looking to help reduce alarming levels of physical inactivity around the world.

New data from the World Health Organization (WHO) on rising levels of physical inactivity, released on June 26, 2024, is prompting sporting goods manufacturers and fitness giants to team up to tackle this alarming trend.

According to data published by WHO, 31% of adults lead a sedentary lifestyle and do not achieve the recommended level of physical activity (only 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week).

If this trend continues, the global rate of physical inactivity is expected to increase to 35% in 2030 (up from 26% in 2010). In addition, the gap in participation by age and gender is widening; women are at least 5 percentage points less active than men, and physical inactivity increases rapidly from age 60 onwards.

New data on teenagers will be published this year, but based on previous data, it is known that 81% do not do enough physical activity to maintain good health.

The sports industry will support this reality

With this in mind, the world’s largest sporting goods companies, including Adidas, Amer Sports, ANTA, Arena, ASICS, Cycle Europe, Decathlon, Li-Ning, New Balance, Nike, On, Orbea, Pentland Brands, Puma, Restube, Shimano, SHRED, Specialized, SRAM, Tecnica Group, Under Armour, Wearable Technologies and Yonex, have joined together in the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) to support the call for urgent action.

The national sporting goods federations of Austria, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Norway, Spain, Great Britain, USA, Cycling Industries Europe, FESI Europe and ISPO, as well as the retail and health and fitness federations, FEDAS Europe, EuropeActive and the Health and Fitness Association, join this call to action.

The signatory organizations represent the combined sporting goods, retail, health and fitness industries, who together have a powerful platform and responsibility to drive the global sports industry to find and implement solutions to help address the growing problem of physical inactivity.

The signatory organizations represent the combined sporting goods, retail, health and fitness industries, who together have a powerful platform and responsibility to drive the global sports industry to find and implement solutions to help address the growing problem of physical inactivity.

Barbara Martin Coppola, CEO of Decathlon, said: “Activity is a major issue for communities around the world. Movement can have an incredibly positive impact on people’s wellbeing, both mentally and physically, even if it’s just for a few minutes. At Decathlon, we’re big advocates of helping people incorporate movement into their daily lives for the benefit of their individual health as well as the health of society as a whole. With our purpose of moving people through the wonders of sport, we aim to build a happier, healthier world by making it easier for people to do the sports they love the way they do best.”

For his part, WFSGI President Andy Rubin says, “It takes a team effort to solve the global inactivity crisis. New data on adult inactivity shows that not enough is being done to reverse this trend. That’s why, even though we are competitors in the business, we have come together to share our understanding of consumer behavior and people’s participation in community sports and physical activity. We are all in this business to help people get more active now and develop a lifelong passion for sports and physical activity and the benefits that come with it.”

What are we facing? The price of physical inactivity

Emerging evidence shows that rising levels of physical inactivity among the world’s population have direct public health implications, contributing to increases in obesity and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which are chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, respiratory diseases and diabetes.

Although the global adult sedentary rate remains estimated at 28%, the WHO has calculated that the cost of physical inactivity has exceeded $300 billion, based on estimates that by 2030 nearly half a billion people are expected to develop diseases that could be prevented by regular physical activity.

The rate of physical inactivity among adolescents exceeds 80%, and the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on physical activity levels among children is still unknown. Without urgent action to reverse this trend, there is a very real risk that children and young people will become a significant health and economic burden on society as they grow older.

How can the sporting goods and fitness industry help tackle the physical inactivity crisis?

According to a joint statement released a few days ago, the private sector of the sporting goods and fitness industry makes the following commitments, which will be implemented through multi-stakeholder collaboration:

“The sporting goods and fitness industry is already working hard to tackle physical inactivity through targeted community-based interventions. However, we are calling for a more collaborative approach that will have a greater and faster impact. We are united in our belief that physical activity has many benefits; for example, encouraging active movement has direct benefits for both health and the protection of the planet. It is also recognised that good physical education in schools directly benefits the mental health and academic performance of young people,” the organisations said.

EDWIN CAICEDO

Environment and Health Journalist

@CaicedoUcros