sportstyle

chore for Mojo Sports should a player indicate the sizing was wrong or want to switch out the color. Says Vick, "It ends up being almost more headache than it's worth. Mojo Sports still does do a sizeable basketball team uniform business, selling into high schools, middle schools and some AAU programs. Vick marvels at how the costs of sublimated jerseys has quickly come down to become competitive with screenprint and other options as well as the ease of working with uniform providers: "I just build it, order it and I don't touch it." Mojo Sports also sees some opportunities selling back- packs, team socks, shooting shirts and travel suits to players, as well as accessories such as nets to coaches and ADs and spiritwear to fans. However, Vick says much of the wintertime for Mojo Sports is spent selling awards and workout packs as football wraps up, servicing early orders for baseball, and supporting volleyball and soccer travel teams. "Realistically, basketball is almost more of a breathing and refit time between my spring and fall sports," he adds. Hooping Hoosier Style Basketball remains a significant opportunity for Coaches Corner Sporting Goods, in Terre Haute, IN, as 14 of the 16 largest high school gymnasiums in the U.S. are located in the state of Indiana, largely to support the sport. "In middle school basketball, kids might play 18 to 24 games in Indiana. I would gather at the middle school level in Florida they play six to eight," says GM Doc Claussen. "So, although travel ball is huge nationwide, Indiana and the Midwest might be a little bit different." Coaches Corner's core customers run from elementary to high schools, as well as travel teams that makes the sport a year-round selling opportunity. e dealer outfits cus- tomized team uniforms, practice gear, fan gear and socks. Claussen says some older coaches still look for screenprint or tackle twill embellishment options, but uniforms have largely shied to sublimation. He believes sublimation ultimately offers more value to the school. "e days of screenprinting practice jerseys and maybe lower-level reversible mesh jerseys and then doing your own decorating on it, whether through screenprinting or heat transfer images and numbers, has gone to sublimation," Claussen reports. "In the end, they may pay more upfront, but the longevity could be five to six years instead of buying every couple years. In the end, we are saving schools money." Preparation, according to Claussen, has become more important because sublimation still takes longer than in- house decoration. Like many other team dealers, Coaches Corner no longer offers footwear as Claussen says the category's Basketball continues to be the most- popular team sport in the U.S., from the point of view of participation covering both team and recreational play. According to figures released by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) based on an extensive survey taken in 2023, there are 29.7 million Americans, ages six and above, who play basketball. Basketball participation grew 5.6 percent year over year and is ahead 4.3 percent on a five-year average from 2018 to 2023. The growth in basketball participation has been solid and steady since 2016. "Both the 6-12 and 13-17 age groups saw a year-over-year increase in participation from 2022 to 2023," Alex Kerman, senior director of research, SFIA, tells Team Insight. "Additionally, core participation for ages 6-12 and core female categories climbed, although there was a slight decrease in core participation for ages 13-17. In 2024, basketball will be the first team sport tracked by SFIA to reach 30 million participants in the U.S. Indeed, one concerning trend is the growth is being driven by casual participants versus core participants who are more likely to continue playing the sport. Back in 2019 (pre-COVID), there were 24.9 million players, of which 9.7 million were casual participants (play one to 12 times a year) and 15.2 million were core (play 13 times or more a year). By 2023, the number of casual participants had grown to 14.4 million while core players were up slightly, to 15.3 million. In a separate report from NFHS, based on figures collected during the 2023- 24 school year, basketball remains the number one sport for both girls and boys, in terms of the number of schools that sponsor teams in the U.S. For girls, 18,090 high schools have a basketball team; for boys, 18,587. However, girls' basketball continues to lose participants at the high school level despite attention to the sport brought by the likes of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. A total of 367,284 girls played high school basketball over the 2023- 24 school year, down 1.6 percent year over year and losing 20 percent of its participants over the last two decades. Boys' basketball ranks third among team sports played, behind football and track and field, with 536,668 participants for the 2023-24 school year, slightly up from 537,438 participants a year ago. Basketball participation numbers among boys has remained fairly steady with 544,311 boys playing high school basketball two decades ago in the 2003- 04 season. The SFIA's most current Manufacturers Sales by Category Report reveals that the basketball sector continues to build on gains seen in recent years. The category received a significant boost during the pandemic as households stuck in their homes during lockdown periods installed basketball systems in their backyards. Wholesale sales of basketball equipment (backboards, basketballs, nets, rims and other accessories) were $695.4 million in 2023, up 10.1 percent year over year and ahead 53.4 percent since 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. Among sub- categories within equipment since 2019, basketballs sales reached $332.9 in 2023, up 5.9 percent year over year and 44.2 percent since 2019; backboards, $299.8 million, climbing 14.3 percent year over year and 65.5 percent since 2019; and other/accessories, $62.8 million, up 14.0 percent year over year and 51.3 percent since 2019. In the team uniform category in 2023, wholesale sales of basketball uniforms grew 5.6 percent to $288.9 million and is now ahead 34.3 percent versus 2019. Of the five uniform categories (baseball, basketball, football, soccer and volleyball) tracked by SFIA, the basketball category had the strongest statistical rate of growth from 2019-2023. n INSIDE THE HOOP NUMBERS sportstylemag.com • sportstyle January/February 2025 • 37

• Cover