Wholesale sales of ice hockey equipment in the U.S. 2007-2022

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic causing commercial interruptions, wholesale sales of ice hockey protective gear in the United States dropped to approximately 92.4 million U.S. dollars in 2020, making it a considerable decrease compared to the previous year. In 2021, however, U.S. wholesale sales of such items bounced back to an estimated 112 million U.S. dollars, and continued to increase to approximately 118 million U.S. dollars in 2022. The other two largest product segments in the ice hockey market were skates and hockey sticks.

Ice Hockey

Ice hockey is a very popular sport to play and watch in the United States and in Canada. Both countries ranked the highest by number of registered ice hockey players, at over 345,000 in Canada and nearly 455,000 in the United States. Canada also accounted for the most indoor and outdoor ice hockey rinks in the world. In 2020/2021, there were about 2,860 indoor ice rinks and 5,000 outdoor ice rinks in the country.

Sporting Goods in the United States

The sports equipment market in North America is expected to exceed 16 billion U.S. dollars in value by 2023, up from the estimated 15 billion dollars in 2020. Sports equipment falls under this broader category of sporting goods. In terms of retail sales of the U.S. sporting goods market, athletic apparel was and always has been the most lucrative category, generating over 45 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of U.S. wholesale sales in 2022.