1.1 Definition and scope of the study

The swimwear market can be divided into two broad categories:

Technical swimwear used by swimmers in the pool or in a sporting context;
Leisure swimwear, which is a more fashionable type of swimwear used for example at the beach.

In particular, swimwear is made primarily of nylon, polyester and spandex, with polyester being the most common material. Although Covid has had an effect on swimwear purchases, the swimwear market is globally growing and is expected to continue to grow at a rapid pace. Among the key drivers:

More people are learning to swim;
Swimming is becoming more popular;
Spending on recreation is increasing.

The Asia Pacific region, in particular, is expected to grow the fastest due to the increase in swimming activity. The global market is highly fragmented, with no single player holding more than 1.5% of the total market share in 2019. Some of the largest companies include the Pentland Group, Inditex, Calzedonia, and Adidas.

According to edited, the UK market will continue to grow by 2.3% through 2023, driven by increased public interest in sports, both in a leisure and sports context. The rate of people who can swim in the UK is high, but there is a gap in the age distribution, where the ability to swim decreases with age. In other words, swimwear retailers must keep this demographic factor in mind when implementing marketing strategies.

In particular, retailers are stocking stores in 2020 with what they believe will be fashionable in the future, including comfortable swimsuits, wide waist bikinis and animal prints.

1.2 A growing global market

In ****, the global swimwear market was valued at $**.** billion. [***]

The market was projected to grow at a CAGR (***) of *.**% from **** to **** to reach $**.** billion by ****.

Global Swimwear Market Size World, ****-****, $ billion Source: ****

The growth of the global market is mainly driven by the increasing population, the rise of water activities ...

1.3 The UK market

According to the Office for National Statistics, the swimwear market is included in the clothing and textile subclass titled "Manufacture of other wearing apparel and accessories" which had a turnover of £***.* million in ****, equivalent to almost *% of the global market.

Assuming that the UK market share in the global market is ...

1.4 International Trade

The United Kingdom has a significant trade deficit regarding swimwear. Indeed, the volume of imports exceeds exports every year. Both flows were following rather increasing trends until **** with respective growths of **% and **% for imports and exports from **** to ****. However, **** was a turning point with respective drops of **% and **% in volume.

Evolution ...

2.1 Consumer profile

The female segment represents a significant portion of the swimwear market. The following graph shows that women are slightly over-represented among those who say they swim more than twice a week.

Breakdown of UK Fortnightly Swimmers England, ****-**, in percent Source: ****

Favourite places of swimming of the English swimming outdoors England, ...

2.2 Significant seasonality of demand

The results shown in the graph below reflect the proportion of searches for a given keyword in a specific region and time period, relative to the region with the highest usage of that keyword (***). Thus, a value of ** means that the keyword was used half as often in the region and ...

2.3 A decrease in demand accentuated by the health crisis

The following graph shows the evolution of British households' spending on clothing from **** to ****. It shows that they are reducing their spending on clothing since **** with a *% decrease from **** to ****.

Evolution of clothing expenditure by British households United Kingdom, ****-****, in millions of pounds Source: ****

The swimwear market has also been ...

3.1 Globalized production

The diagram below describes the different stages of the ready-to-wear value chain as it applies to the swimwear market. Using raw materials, textile producers manufacture and supply these textiles to swimwear producers. These producers make collections of products that are then distributed through various channels to end users, namely British men ...

3.2 The distribution of swimwear

In the UK, the main distribution channels for swimwear are:

Sports retailers: Nike, SportsDirect, JD Sports Ready-to-wear retailers with swimwear lines: Specialized swimwear and lingerie brands: Calvin Klein, Etam, Calzedonia, Triumph International Generalist ready-to-wear brands: Argos, Next Retail, H&M, Boden Specialist swimwear brands: Hunza G, Faithfull the brand, Vilebrequin, Fisch Digital ...

3.3 The digitalization of the market

Like the entire clothing market, online shopping and the overall influence of the Internet is developing rapidly

Indeed, an important specificity of the British consumer compared to its European neighbors is its pronounced taste for online shopping. Thus, British retailers offer delivery of clothing products, which makes it possible to order ...