Sportswear sales are on the rise at Zalando. In Italia, there’s a boom in running shoes priced at over 100 euros

Sport – which became a constitutional right in Italia three years ago – is increasingly a priority in the lives of our fellow citizens. This holds true even when it comes to spending, which appears to be holding up at a time when overall consumption is on the decline. Perhaps this is because sport is associated with wellbeing or, as revealed by research conducted by YouGov for Zalando – a group with revenues of €12.3 billion in FY 2025 – 67 per cent of Italians associate the purchase of sportswear with the start of a new journey or the achievement of a personal goal. And they do not confine this type of clothing solely to leisure time: 43 per cent of Italians believe that wearing sportswear in everyday life can challenge traditional dress codes.

“In Italia (which is a strategic market for the group, ed.), the sports category is one of the best-performing,” explains Eloisa Siclari, General Manager for Southern Europe at Zalando. “This growth is driven by a greater focus on wellbeing and new lifestyles. There is also growing demand for high-quality, technical sports products: whilst in 2021, running shoes priced above 100 euros accounted for around 35 per cent of running shoe sales on Zalando, today that figure exceeds 70 per cent – a clear sign that customers are seeking innovation and quality.”

Price is undoubtedly a key factor in choosing a sports product (it is the main deciding factor for almost two in three Italians) but consumers are also placing increasing importance on style (32 per cent, rising to 38 per cent amongst the most active sports enthusiasts), brand reputation (22 per cent) and the technical performance of the products (20 per cent). This latter figure rises to 27 per cent for those who practise sport regularly.

Sportswear is, in general, a growing sector: according to a Euromonitor report published in June 2026, more than one in five items of clothing and footwear sold worldwide in 2025 belonged to the sportswear segment. Furthermore, the same report estimates that the global sportswear market will grow by an average of almost 5 per cent between 2025 and 2030, outpacing the overall growth rate of the clothing and footwear markets.

However, it is highly specialised brands that have recorded the best results over the last five years – and, consequently, since the pandemic brought healthcare back into the spotlight. Among those that have recorded the highest annual growth rates, for example, are specialist running shoe brands such as On and Hoka (the latter owned by Deckers Brands), which recorded average annual revenue growth of over 40 per cent between 2021 and 2025.