Sportswear Industry Predicts Boost from Olympics and World Cup

The soccer World Cup and next month's Winter Olympics in Sochi will help sportswear sales to recover in 2014 after an unseasonably warm winter hit demand for cold-weather kit in Europe, industry representatives said on Wednesday.

The World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry, which includes companies such as market leaders Nike, Adidas and Puma, expects growth between 3.5 percent and 4 percent this year, president Frank Dassler said.

"We can already see that retailers' demand for football products is rising strongly and we expect further growth," Dassler told reporters ahead of next week's ISPO sports trade fair in Munich.