The Global Market for Bicycle Helmets
Summary: We don't have good data on the global market for bicycle helmets.
We don't have any authoritative or reliable statistics on the size of the US or global market for bicycle helmets.
The data may or may not be gathered, but if they are, the numbers are considered proprietary and not reported anywhere in the public domain that we have found.
We have a number of guesses and speculations, and we have collected those in the items below. They do not answer the question, but will give you all the hints we have heard here and there. We update this page whenever we get a new inkling of what the total numbers may be, so you are welcome to email us, but we won't have anything newer that the refresh date at the bottom of this page. We just do not have the numbers.
We recommend looking at our Statistics Page as well for related numbers on total numbers of cyclists and bicycle sales.
Statistics from Pure Speculation
by the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
How Many Helmets are Sold Each Year?
(Updated February, 2005. Nothing new since)
We have asked many manufacturers if they had a good estimate of how many helmets are sold in the US market each year. If they do have that info, they are not sharing it with us. So we are reduced to reporting rumor and speculation on this subject. The best guesses we have found are in the 12 to 15 million helmets annually range. The bulk of those would be mass merchant sales, rather than the helmets sold in bike shops. We noted a small price increase in advertised mass merchant sales prices in our area after 2000, ending in mid-2004 when Wal-Mart began marketing a helmet for $7.14, and Target soon followed. In the May 1, 2002 issue of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, reporter Matt Wiebe says that helmet sales in the US for 2001 totaled $150 million. He does not attribute that estimate, but quotes Bell Sports' President Bill Fry on something else in the next paragraph, so at least he was talking to Bell. In 2009 the Wal-Mart/Target low priced helmet has moved up to $10.
One manufacturer who was willing to give us an estimate in 2006 put the total world market for bicycle helmets at 25 to 30 million helmets per year. We have no idea whether or not that is correct.
Below are the only stats we have seen that a manufacturer has actually published, but they date back to the mid-1990's and the manufacturer is no longer in business.
Old Statistics from the Headstrong Group:
How Many Helmets are Sold Each Year?
From Headstrong Group (no longer in business--this is old stuff!)
Market Share of Some Major Manufacturers:
Manufacturer 1993 1994 Percent 1995 est.
Bell Sports 3,000 4,000 40% 4,500
Cycle Products 1,500 2,000 20 2,000
Headstrong 1,700 17 3,300
Troxel 1,500 1,000 10 1,000
Other 1,000 1,300 13 2,200
----- ----- ----- -----
Total 7,000 10,000 100 13,000
Note: The brochure where this chart appears did not make it clear whether these estimates are for the U.S., North American or World helmet markets. It also does not say whether or not it includes the non-bicycle part of Headstrong's sales of baseball, equestrian, ski, snowboard and skating helmets. The source is cited as "Various industry reports and internal estimates." Whatever the accuracy of the figures, we are indebted to Headstrong Group as the only manufacturer to publicly publish their estimates. They are still on this page because we have yet to find other published numbers.
Statistics from Other Manufacturers
Strategic has told us that they sell millions of helmets to the US market every year.
Kuji Sports informed us in 2004 that they are shipping 3 million helmets per year to the US market.
This page was last revised on: June 30, 2010.
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