Market Research for Sports & Athletic Leisure

Market Research for Sports and Athletic Leisure: Local Insight, Global Impact

The world’s most recognised sports and athletic leisure brands share a common challenge: how do you stay globally consistent while remaining genuinely relevant at a local level? Getting that balance right is the difference between a brand that resonates and one that misses the mark, and it’s where research makes all the difference.

At 10 THOUSAND FEET, we’ve spent more than 15 years helping sports and athletic leisure brands do exactly that. From category leaders to niche specialists, we help brands understand their local consumers deeply, make faster and more confident decisions, and build the evidence base needed to win global buy-in for local strategies.

What Is Market Research for Sports and Athletic Leisure?

Market research for sports and athletic leisure brands is the systematic collection and analysis of consumer, brand, and category insights that help organisations compete effectively in a dynamic, trend-driven market. It goes well beyond tracking sales; it’s about understanding the values, behaviours, and motivations of consumers who are deeply passionate about their sport, their lifestyle, and the brands they choose to represent both.

For sports and athletic leisure brands, research plays a critical role in:

Understanding local consumer preferences, values, and purchase drivers
Adapting global brand strategies to resonate in specific markets
Benchmarking brand health and tracking perception over time
Testing new products, campaigns, and communications before launch
Sizing markets and identifying growth opportunities
Building the data-backed rationale needed for global stakeholder buy-in

Our Experience in Sports and Athletic Leisure Research

We’ve had the privilege of working with some of the world’s most recognised sports and athletic leisure brands, including 2XU, Asics, Converse, Hoka, Lululemon, Marmot, Mizuno, New Balance, Nike, Salomon and Under Armour. From global giants navigating local market nuance to niche brands seeking to sharpen their positioning or appeal to mainstream consumers while not alienating their niche heritage, our experience spans the full spectrum of the industry.

Our retail experience is equally strong. We have worked with leading sports and athletic leisure retailers across Australia and internationally including Accent Group (The Athlete’s Foot, Hype DC, and Platypus), Decathlon, Foot Locker, INTERSPORT, Rebel, and SportsPower; bringing category and shopper insights, brand benchmarking, and customer experience research to the retail environment. This retail depth means we understand the full value chain, from global brand strategy through to how products and experiences land at the point of sale.

We also partnered with the Australian Sporting Goods Association (ASGA), the sporting goods industry’s peak body for over a decade, giving us a privileged view of the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the industry as a whole.

Our broader health, fitness, and wellness experience extends to clients including NSW Department of Health, Victoria University, AUSactive (formerly Fitness Australia), and Anytime Fitness; giving us a rounded understanding of how consumers engage with health and fitness across both the public and private sectors, and how those expectations of brands are evolving over time.

Credential	Detail
Years of experience	15+ years in sports and athletic leisure research
Global brand clients	Nike, Lululemon, Asics, Hoka, Salomon, New Balance, Under Armour, Converse, Mizuno, 2XU, Marmot
Local and global retailer clients	Accent Group (The Athlete’s Foot, Hype DC, Platypus etc.), Decathlon, Foot Locker, INTERSPORT, Rebel, SportsPower
Industry association	Past multi-year partnership with the Australian Sporting Goods Association (ASGA)
Broader sector	Health, fitness, wellness — public and private sectors across Australia
Research scope	Brand, consumer, localisation, category, campaign, and segmentation research

The Power of Localisation

In sports and athletic leisure, localisation is everything. Global brands thrive when they can adapt to local tastes, cultural nuances, and market trends; understanding what genuinely resonates with local consumers rather than assuming a global campaign will land the same way everywhere.

Research is what bridges that gap. It identifies the values, preferences, and behaviours that are specific to a local market, giving brand teams the insight they need to make products and communications more appealing and relevant. And crucially, it does so with the rigour and specificity that global stakeholders can trust.

We fuse insights and technology to help sports and athletic leisure brands connect with consumers on a deep, emotive level because in this category more than most, the relationship between consumer and brand is personal.

Winning Global Buy-In for Local Strategies

Understanding the local market is only half the challenge. The other half is convincing global teams that a localised approach is worth investing in.

This is one of the areas where our research delivers the most tangible value. We help brands build the data-backed rationale needed to bring global leaders on the journey; providing the evidence base that makes localised strategies credible, compelling, and approved. Research-driven organisational alignment at a global level isn’t just about getting sign-off. It’s about ensuring the local team has the support, resources, and confidence to execute.

Health and Wellness Is Part of Our DNA

Our commitment to sports, fitness, and wellness goes beyond the work we do for our clients. Since our founding in 2003, health and wellness has been woven into the culture of 10 THOUSAND FEET.

We’re passionate about maintaining optimal fitness to support mental clarity, energy, and wellbeing because we believe it makes us better researchers and better partners to our clients. Our team engages in monthly fitness challenges throughout the year, from steps, squats and plank challenges to yoga and HIIT; keeping us fit, energised, and genuinely connected to the consumer experiences we’re researching.

That lived understanding of health and fitness culture isn’t just good for the team. It’s good for the research.

Our Research Services for Sports and Athletic Leisure

We offer a comprehensive range of research services tailored to the specific needs of sports and athletic leisure brands and we love designing bespoke solutions for challenges that don’t fit neatly into a standard brief.

Brand and Market Research

Brand Research and Strategy – Understanding brand health, positioning, and the emotional connections that drive consumer loyalty in a highly competitive category
Sales Data Aggregation and Market Sizing – Quantifying market opportunity and benchmarking performance against category trends
Online Reputation Management Research – Monitoring and understanding brand perception in the digital and social media landscape
Social media engagement & positioning – Benchmarking competitor performance, priorities, positioning and promotional cadence.

Consumer Research

Customer Usage and Attitude Research – Understanding how, why, and when consumers engage with sports and athletic leisure brands and products
Customer Satisfaction Research – Measuring the end-to-end experience of your consumers and identifying where it can be improved
Customer Journey Mapping – Tracing every touchpoint in the consumer relationship and finding the moments that matter most
Segmentation and Profiling Research – Identifying the distinct consumer segments within your market and understanding what makes each one tick

Campaign and Product Research

Campaign and Product Testing – Evaluating creative concepts, messaging, and new products before they go to market, reducing risk and sharpening impact

Don’t see exactly what you’re looking for? We love a challenge. Get in touch and we’ll design a research solution that fits.

Why Specialist Research Matters in This Category

Sports and athletic leisure is a category defined by passion, identity, and rapid change. Consumer expectations shift quickly, new entrants disrupt established players regularly, and the line between sportswear and lifestyle wear continues to blur. Brands that stay ahead are the ones that understand their consumers most deeply and act on that understanding fastest.

Generic research approaches rarely account for the emotional intensity of this category or the complexity of operating across global and local dimensions simultaneously. Specialist research does. It’s designed to capture the nuance of how consumers relate to sports and athletic leisure brands; the values they project, the communities they belong to, and the expectations they bring to every interaction.

At 10 THOUSAND FEET, we bring more than 15 years of category-specific experience to every engagement. We understand the language, the culture, and the competitive dynamics of this industry; and that understanding shapes everything about how we design and deliver our research.

HOKA, Molly Rugg, Former Marketing Manager:

“It’s clear the team are highly skilled, they have clear and proactive communication.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is sports and athletic leisure market research for? Any brand operating in the sports, athletic leisurewear, or broader health and fitness space that wants to understand its consumers more deeply, sharpen its positioning, test new products or campaigns, or build the evidence base for local market strategies. It’s particularly valuable for global brands seeking to localise effectively, and for brands navigating a rapidly evolving competitive landscape.

What does localisation research involve? Localisation research identifies the specific values, preferences, cultural nuances, and purchase drivers that shape consumer behaviour in a particular market. It gives brand teams the consumer insight they need to adapt global strategies for local relevance and the data-backed rationale needed to get global sign-off on those adaptations.

How does research help with global stakeholder buy-in? Research provides the objective, data-driven evidence that global decision-makers need to feel confident in approving and resourcing localised strategies. Rather than relying on anecdote or local instinct, it gives leadership teams a clear, credible picture of the local market opportunity and the consumer rationale behind the proposed approach.

Do you work with both large global brands and smaller specialist brands? Yes. Our client experience spans global category leaders like Nike and Lululemon through to niche and specialist brands. The research approach is always tailored to the scale, budget, and specific objectives of each brand.

Do you work with local and global sports retail clients? Yes. Alongside our work with global athletic brands, we have extensive experience working with sports and athletic leisure retailers, both local and international. Our retail clients include Accent Group (The Athlete’s Foot, Hype DC, Platypus, and more), Decathlon, Foot Locker, INTERSPORT, Rebel, and SportsPower. We understand the distinct research needs of the retail environment; from category and shopper insights to brand benchmarking and customer experience research across multiple store locations.

What broader health and fitness experience do you bring? Beyond athletic leisurewear brands, we have extensive experience across the health, fitness, and wellness sector; including NSW Department of Health, Victoria University, AUSactive (Formerly Fitness Australia), and Anytime Fitness. This gives us a rounded view of how consumers engage with health and fitness across both the public and private sectors, and how their expectations of brands in this space are evolving.

What makes 10 THOUSAND FEET different from a general research agency in this space? Genuine category immersion: 15 years of working with the world’s leading sports and athletic leisure brands, a multi-year partnership with the peak industry body, and a team that lives and breathes health and fitness. We understand this category not just as researchers, but as consumers and participants. That depth of understanding shapes better questions, richer insights, and more actionable research.

Ready to understand your consumers more deeply and build the local insight that drives global confidence? We’d love to hear about your brand and explore how we can help.

Enquire here or book a complimentary strategy session with a research expert, we’d love to hear from you.

Let’s start a conversation

We’ve helped other clients transform their organisations and would love to be part of your story.

Address

Level 6, 275 Alfred Street North,
North Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2060

Email

info@10thousandfeet.com

Phone

02 8080 7544