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Industries - Sports & Activewear
Competitor monitoring for sports and activewear brands
Activewear brands fight over the same shoppers in a market where the biggest names have said discounting hurt their margin, and where sales events differ by country. Here is how that competition works, with sources, and what to watch about your competitors.
Updated
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How sports & activewear brands compete
Discounting is a margin decision the leaders talk about
NIKE reported in its fiscal 2025 annual report that gross margin fell 190 basis points to 42.7%, primarily due to higher discounts, changes in channel mix and higher inventory obsolescence reserves. The same report describes actions to reduce supply of certain footwear through increased markdowns across NIKE Direct and discounts and higher sales returns with wholesale partners.
Others went the other way: Under Armour described, in its fiscal 2025 annual report, proactive strategies to reduce discounting and promotional activity in its direct-to-consumer channel, particularly in ecommerce. Whether a competitor is cutting or pulling back on discounts changes how you should price against it.
The year ends with a peak
Lululemon says in its fiscal 2025 annual report that it generated approximately 37% of its full-year operating profit in the fourth quarter. Under Armour says the majority of its net revenues are historically generated during the last two quarters of the calendar year. For brands competing with them, the holiday quarter is when promotions, launches and ad budgets collide.
Sales events differ by market
Lululemon also notes that events predominantly affecting its international revenue, such as Lunar New Year and Singles Day, can fall in different fiscal quarters from year to year. A brand selling in several markets faces a different promotional calendar in each, and competitors' local events are easy to miss from a single-market view. See promotional calendar.
Sizes and colourways sell out
Activewear is sold in many sizes and colourways, so a best seller can be out of stock in the common sizes while technically still "in stock". Those partial stockouts are short windows in which shoppers who wanted the competitor's product are looking for an alternative.
What to monitor about your competitors
Discount depth and frequency
How often and how deep each competitor discounts, and whether it is cutting more or pulling back, against its own history.
Launches and colourways
New products, categories and colourways, and how often they land.
Stock in the common sizes
When competitors' best sellers run out in core sizes, and for how long.
Market-specific events
Promotions tied to local events in each market a competitor sells in, with their dates.
Ads
Which products and offers competitors push in Meta and Google ads, including ads that land on sold-out pages.
Delivery, returns and payment
Shipping thresholds, returns windows and payment options such as buy now, pay later.
How RivalSweeper helps
What the product does today, as listed on our product facts page. It reports and alerts; it does not reprice your products.
- Checks each competitor site every day: a newly added competitor gets its first data within 24 hours, and a change is known within 48 hours. Daily monitoring, not real-time.
- Keeps prices, discounts and dated price history, so you can see whether a competitor is discounting more or less than last season.
- Tracks stock status on supported websites and records new, removed and updated products and new categories.
- Tracks Meta ads, including ads that land on broken, sold-out or ended-offer pages, and Google ads activity (Search, Shopping and YouTube).
- Tracks shipping and payment options, promotions and coupon codes, homepage banners and newsletters.
- Tracks multi-market stores per market and currency, with their shipping countries, currencies and languages, and converts price comparisons across stores to your currency.
- No script, plugin or store integration: you add competitor domains and RivalSweeper reads their public websites, whatever platform they run on.
Frequently asked questions
What should an activewear brand monitor about its competitors?
Discount depth and frequency against each competitor's own history, launches and colourways, stock in the common sizes, promotions tied to local events in each market, ads, and delivery, returns and payment terms.
When do activewear brands make most of their sales?
Late in the calendar year for many of them. Lululemon reports that about 37% of its fiscal 2025 operating profit came in the fourth quarter, and Under Armour says most of its net revenues are historically generated in the last two quarters of the calendar year.
Can RivalSweeper show when a competitor's product sells out?
Yes, on supported websites: it tracks stock status and checks each monitored site daily, so a change is known within 48 hours. It also flags competitors' Meta ads that land on sold-out pages.
Sources
- NIKE, Inc. Form 10-K, fiscal year ended May 31, 2025
- Under Armour Form 10-K, fiscal year ended March 31, 2025
- Lululemon Athletica Form 10-K, fiscal year ended February 1, 2026
Company figures are what each company reports about itself in its own filing. Examples on linked glossary pages are hypothetical.
See your sports & activewear competitors in one place
Add a competitor and get its first data within 24 hours, then every change from each daily check.
14 days, no card. Prefer a walkthrough? Book 15 min