UNITED STATES IS NOT A NATION OF COUCH POTATOES; HEAVY SPORTS PARTICIPATION INCREASES SALES OF SPORTS CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT

Lynn Mayfield showed one of the in-line skates that he sells at Play It Again Sports.

Americans are not a nation of couch potatoes. Considering just the following statistics is enough to work up a sweat:

-- More than 49 million people ride bicycles.

-- Some 43 million people used exercise equipment last year. More than half of those people worked out at home.

-- More than 34 million people participated in billiards and pool in 1994.

-- The biggest sports participation category in 1994 was walking, with more than 70.8 million people taking hikes for the enjoyment, and health, of it.

One of the hottest exercise categories is "in-line" roller skating. More than 19 million people joined the skating crowd in 1994, double the participation of 1993.

"We have yet to see the impact of roller hockey, which is now attracting the pre-junior high crowd," said Thomas B. Doyle, director of information for the National Sporting Goods Association, headquartered in Prospect, Ill.

In-line skating "is similar to ice skating, except on sidewalks," explained Lynn Mayfield of Play It Again Sports in the Town Plaza Shopping Center in Cape Girardeau. It's a spinoff of old roller skating, except with the newer roller blades.

"In-line skating became popular in California and Florida and is catching on in all areas in between," said Mayfield. "It's certainly catching on in this area."

Mayfield's store sells new and used sports equipment, including roller blades and cleated shoes for baseball and golf.

With sports participation increasing in almost every category -- golf, swimming, aerobics, fishing, camping, hiking, boating and other activities -- retail sales of sporting goods are expected to grow more than 3 percent this year after showing similar growth in 1994.

Sporting goods sales for 1994 were more than $48.7 billion, up from the $45.4 billion in 1993. With the expected 3 percent growth, sales could top $50 billion this year.

"We're conservative in our forecasts," added Doyle. The NSGA does not survey all products in every category, or make estimates for accessory items. "We do not include items that may be designed for leisure activity rather than specific sports," he said. "Our estimates should be viewed as minimal in each sport product category."

Some area merchants agree sales have been good.

"Not great, but good," said Todd Rowland, owner of Kawasaki Express Cycle, 300 N. Kingshighway. "There has been a lot of interest in water sports this year, and we've had good success with ski watercraft."

Kawasaki Express handles Tigershark and Kawasaki ski watercraft, motorcycles and ATVs.

Cape Boat & Motor Inc., 624 Commercial, noted a sales increase this year. "Nothing big," said Dave Dobbs, owner of the business, "but from August to August we're a little ahead of last year."

Much of Cape Boat & Motor's sales have been for fishing boats and motors.

"Hunting and fishing supply sales have been "pretty fair" said Don Beard, of Beard's Sports Shop, 811 Broadway. Beard's carries hunting guns, fishing rods and reels and a variation of supplies, including wading boots. "There seems to be an increased interest in outdoors supplies this year," added Beard.

Sales at JBR Outfitters, 2502 William, are about same as last year.

"1994 was an exceptional year," said Rodney Phegley, an owner in the business that sells hunting and fishing supplies, including clothing. "With the new gun regulations, we sold a lot of guns last year. Archery is up this year."

JBR also includes a shooting range, for both guns and archer.

Sales of athletic and sports equipment, footwear and clothing are expected to reach $32.1 billion in 1995, due to a rebound in sales of sports clothing.

"Sports clothing sales declined about two percent, from $8.6 billion in 1993 to $8.4 billion in 1994. However, that should grow to $8.7 billion this year, an increase of four percent," said Doyle. More than 116 million Americans are jogging, running or walking.

Over the past two years a number of department stores -- including Wal-Mart and Kmart -- have added more inventory to their jogging-running clothing line. Representatives from both companies say they have good selections for men, women and children.

"We have expanded our lines to include a wide variety of different fleece and nylon jogging sets," said Liz Brejnik, softlines manager at Kmart, 11 S. Kingshighway. And, just in are a number of sporty "sports team" jackets to go along with jogging suits."

Sales of athletic and sport equipment were strong in 1994, up 7.6 percent. The strong 1994 sales were driven by big increase in in-line skating and shooting sports equipment sales, which were up 35 and 28 percent respectively, said Doyle.

Athletic and sport footwear purchases were flat in 1993 and remained that way in 1994, with sales at $7.8 billion during both years. The number of pairs of shoes sold grew more than 2 percent, but the average price declines netting no dollar growth last year.

Sales of sporting goods and recreation transport equipment grew 7 percent in 1994, to $17.5 billion, up from 1993 totals of $15.21 billion. Boating sales accounted for much of the increase last year, up 23 percent from 1993.

Coming off an extremely strong growth in 1993, exercise equipment sales slipped about 6 percent in 1994, to $2.4 billion, still the third strongest year in the sales of home fitness equipment. Bolstering the fitness equipment sales last year were treadmills, which account for almost $1 million in sales.

Corporations are increasingly realizing the importance of fitness and health issues. About 30 percent of corporations and busineses in Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and West Kentucky have made exercising available to employees by installing workplace exercise areas, or by making fitness-club memberships available to employees. One survey indicates that 65 percent of companies that employ 250 to 749 have on-site centers. That percentage is more than double the 32 percent offering facilities in 1985.

The NSGA's "The Sporting Goods Market for 1995" is a consumer study that projects consumer purchases of sporting goods products based on a survey of 80,000 U.S. households.

The NSGA's World Sports Expo was held last weekend at McCormick Place in Chicago, side-by-side with the Imprinted Sportswear Show, a premier show for the screen-printing, embroidery and lettering industry.

The screen-printing industry has become big business over the past two decades, and some T-shirts fit into sporting goods sales category. T-shirt sales has topped the billion-dollar mark the past couple of years.