Looking at the global market scale of products in sport and leisure industry shown in Figure 1, the USA market is the largest at approximately 30% and the Japanese market is the second largest at approximately 13% of the global market. The USA and Japanese markets together occupy approximately half of the global consumption on sports product. Other important markets include the 15 nations of EU that occupy approximately 24% of the global market, whereas Canada occupies approximately 2% and Asia occupies approximately 15%. In addition, the rest nations worldwide occupy a total of approximately 14% of the global market. Therefore, it is evident that the market of sport products has very high concentration.
Figure 1. Global market scale
According to statistics of USA Industrial Fund for Outdoor Products (美國戶外用品工業基金會), the global revenue of outdoor products in 2007 was USD 32 billion. Among them, the revenue of outdoor products in USA was approximately USD 7.8 billion; the revenue of outdoor products in Europe was approximately USD 5.8 billion and the revenue of outdoor products in Japan was approximately USD 1.6 billion. At the same time, the outdoor product industry has generated USD 88 billion of tax revenue and 65 million employments for the USA government per annum. 1. Mountain jogging shoes, rock climbing shoes, mountain climbing shoes, hiking paddle shoes and Protective Gears
(http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show11080915916406) To develop the outdoors products, one has to consider the professional uniqueness. Therefore, the manufacturers always actively dedicate in development of product and application of patent, which are orientated towards lightweight and increase of sport ability, as well as focusing on various requirements such as comfort, protection, human engineering and specific sport. The user's comfort is an important factor that will influence consumer's purchase. Therefore, comfort can be researched and developed from material, structure and human engineering. Among them, the purpose of designing protective gear is to prevent sport injury or protect the injured part. This is an elastic protective gear that can partially limit the joint movement to achieve indirect protection for the joint by supplementary muscle contraction. The protective gear can limit movement of certain join, reduce skin friction or absorb the impact energy to achieve purpose of protection. Moreover, the most important design for skin-friendly protective gear is the fabric shown in Figure 3 with excellent moisture absorption, sweat dispersion and rapid drying. The production and dispersion of sweat are important factors to comfort. When sweat appears between the skin and the protective gear, the wearer feels uncomfortable. The wetness, stickiness, coldness and attachment on the body will interfere the movement, and even cause loss of body temperature or heat stroke. Therefore, the ideal procedures to remove sweat rapidly and keep the body dry are as follows:
Figure 6. The skin-friendly fabric
The common materials for protective gears include knitted fabrics, foamed rubbers and the knitted fabrics are often mixed with spun wool, Lycra or other functional fibers. For example, the wool material is suitable to keep the joints warm in a room with air-condition; Lycra is suitable for elderly with fragile skin and the protective gear made with foamed rubbers can provide protection during sport. Therefore, the protective gear in future will head towards cooperation with hi-tech textile and composite material, e.g. the development of PET conductive silk with nano composite materials (PET奈米複合材質導電紗) that combines with micro-electromechanical technology to provide the customers with thorough and complete products. 2. Backpacks, sleeping pads, sleeping bags,
The appearance of outdoor sport products differ from the fashion since attention is required on environment of outdoor leisure activities, characteristics and theme of the material. Under situation of allowable structural strength, the manufacturers simplify the structure, change the material or reduce the weight by replacing the raw material with hollow material, application of plastics, carbon fibers or composite materials, as well as foamed materials with less density and change of weaving method. For example, the design of tent is mainly based on family requirements of multi-functions, light weight, weather proof, tent posts with high strength and simple structure, as well as appearance. The tear-resistant fiber material is adopted for the external tent, which can resist frost and water; the ventilated tear-resistant fabric is used for the internal tent. The aluminum alloys with aviation technology are adopted for the tent posts and nails to increase the strength and reduce the weight. In addition, the cross fixture system is used for building a tent with ease and speed, which effective transmits and shares the supporting force for maintaining the spacing between external and internal tent, as well as improving the functions of temperature and moisture insulation. In case of mountain climbing activity at high altitude, it is suggested to use tent with external and internal layer. The external tent shall have better performance in water-proofing and well ventilation is required for the internal tent (e.g. the Gore-Tex tent), so the inside of tent can be kept dry comfortably. It is better to reserve certain storage space at the front (rear) opening of the tent, which prevents rainwater or dew from wetting the bag or clothes. To address the green application of energy conservation, the solar technology can be used on the mountain tent, which promotes feasibility of solar tent via combination with electromechanical integration. Whether you are interested in mountain activity or scenery exploration, you will surely get mutual joy for the whole family via camping relaxation.
Figure 11. Solar tents 3. Bike bags, rafts and paddles Figure 12. Paddles / Figure 13. Bike bag / Figure 14. Raft (http://Outdoor industry association/Huntshill Pineview) 4. Future trend of outdoor sport products -- Rock climbing shoes: The shoes have light weight and high strength cover for toes. Hard abrasion-resistant rubber with strong grip is adopted for the soles. |
