The World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) is an independent association formed by sporting goods brands, manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, national and regional federations and other sporting goods industry related businesses. It is the world authoritative body for the sporting goods industry and is officially recognized by the IOC

International Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...

 as the industry representative within the Olympic family. It is a non-profit organization that does not pursue any objective of economic character for its own gains.

Role

The WFSGI supports and promotes the sporting goods industry worldwide by providing the platform where its members forge the tools of their cooperation to promote fair trade in order to increase the sport participation in the world and improve the well-being of mankind through the practice of sports.

The federation keeps the members updated on important law and regulations like on product safety and standardization or on working conditions.

They act as the voice of the sporting goods industry toward international organizations (ILO

International Labour Organization

The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...

, WTO

World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...

, UN

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

, etc.) and international sport organizations (IOC-International Olympic Committee

International Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...

 and IFs-International Sports Federations).

Members

The WFSGI is composed of members, categorized according the following:

Full member:

• Industry Suppliers:

Brands, manufacturers, suppliers and/or distributors (including licensing, franchising and retail businesses) of sporting goods and services.

• Industry Supporters:

Recognized federations, associations and/or firms related to the sporting goods industry (such as trade fair organizers, consultancy companies, etc.) which are not directly engaged in the manufacturing, supply or trading of sporting goods and services.

• National or Regional Organizations:

National or regional organizations constituted and recognized as national or regional sporting goods governing bodies in any country throughout the world. Regional organizations can include their national federations in their membership.

Associate member:

Membership granted on invitation of the Board of the World Federation to international sports associations and/or federations or other industry associations or federations with close links to the sporting goods industry, and also to companies, agencies and other entities involved in sports-related sponsorship activities at international level.

Additional membership: Sustaining member:

This status may be obtained by any member who demonstrates a specific high degree of identification with the WFSGI and its objectives. This status is divided in three levels: gold, silver and bronze (with respective services).

Committees

The WFSGI is composed of 7 Committees which exchange information on various issues and topics.

CSR-Corporate Social Responsibility

The CSR

Corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model...

 Committee is focusing on global societal, social and environmental trends like climate change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

, resource depletion

Resource depletion

Resource depletion is an economic term referring to the exhaustion of raw materials within a region. Resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources...

, labor and health issues.

Its work is targeted at developing and promoting an understanding within the World Federation about the relevance of global social and environmental challenges for each individual member company offering members an opportunity to tackle challenges through guidance and sharing best practice services, supporting members in identifying synergies to tie resources and enhance leverage through collaborative work.

Some programs for 2011 are:

• Ad hoc support to members through the CSR Helpdesk
• Alert members on important legal developments and regulatory changes
• Building a virtual Q&A Forum for members enhancing expertise and supporting exchange and collaboration
• Guidance and direction on CSR best practices
• Tracking developments about environmental indexing systems
• Harmonization of audit processes by offering members access to shared data systems (Fair Factory Clearing House)
• Manufacturer exchange program

Trade

The Trade Committee, created in 2008, is focusing on international trade issues facing the global sporting goods industry, including eliminating trade barriers, defending against trade cases, examining new product safety and testing requirements, removing restrictions that impact WFSGI member company’s supply chains, supporting international trade agreements that benefit the global sporting goods industry.

Some programs for 2011 are:

• US Consumer Safety Product Regulations
• International Trade Agreements (global, regional and bi-lateral)
• International Trade cases (e.g. anti-dumping, safeguards, customs reclassifications and countervailing duty cases etc.)
• China – Product Safety/Testing Initiative
• Supply Chain (port security and infrastructure congestion and development)
• Trade Litigation Training Program
• ISO
  International Organization for Standardization
  The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
  
  /CE norm
  European Committee for Standardization
  The European Committee for Standardization or Comité Européen de Normalisation , is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to foster the European economy in global trading, the welfare of European citizens and the environment by providing an efficient infrastructure to interested parties for...
  
   project (with DIN
  Deutsches Institut für Normung
  is the German national organization for standardization and is that country's ISO member body. DIN is a Registered German Association headquartered in Berlin...
  
  ) to be extended to US and others

Legal/IPR

The Legal Committee is there to keep WFSGI membership informed in a proactive manner on international developments and matters in legal, legislative and IP

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

-related areas; to define and recommend concrete strategies and instruments to the WFSGI members for a more efficient protection and enforcement of the intellectual property rights of the WFSGI members; to educate members on matters of special interest in the area of law and international institutions such as WTO

World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...

, WIPO

World Intellectual Property Organization

The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO was created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world"....

, etc.).

Current projects are:

• Legal Helpdesk
• WFSGI security label/device
• WFSGI web monitoring program
• Assistance in fighting counterfeiting and trademark infringements
• WFSGI best practice risk management and document retention program
• Cooperation with the world customs organization in the area of customs authorities’ training
• Educational activities and best practices in the area of IP protection and enforcement in China
• Closer collaboration with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office) / webinars
• ICANN domain extension program

CISO-Committee on International Sports Organization

The CISO represents the WFSGI as the industry consensus voice to all sports federations and organizations, promoting maximum and equal benefit to all WFSGI members and the sporting goods manufacturers’ community at large..

The Committee is dealing with, among others:

• IOC Guidelines regarding Authorized Identifications
• Project to increase brand exposure at IOC and IF events
• Discussion and collaboration with the IOC on kit and advertisement regulations (Rule 41/51)
• Regular meetings with sport specific groups with target to maintain high level specialized discussions on issues of the sport, International Federations and other stakeholders (football, swimwear, etc)
• Maintain relations and involvement with IFs on all sporting goods related issues including kit and advertisement regulations (FIFA
  FIFA
  The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
  
  /IAAF etc.) and other support programs (CSR,...)
• Management of Olympic Ticketing and Technical Accreditations

Federations

The Federation Committee was created in 2008, to enhance the collaboration of WFSGI with its regional and national sporting goods industry member federations, to promote improved information exchange and mutual assistance amongst the federations themselves. To provide a platform for the global, regional and national federations to develop, exchange and promote best practices, industry trends, market research, collaborative programming and problem solving.
Projects here are:

• Product Classification Key project (based on FEDAS)
• Identification of Federations’ Critical needs
• International Trade Policy-Global Reduction of Sporting Goods Tariffs Initiative
• Exchange of Best Practices in Supply Chain Management
• Sharing of Federation-Generated Market Research
• Improved Information Exchange between WFSGI and Member Federations
• Evaluation/Study on a specific Manufacturer exchange platform (committee or sub-committee)

Manufacturers Forum

The Manufacturers Forum aims at creating a positive synergy between manufacturers and brands by:

• being the venue for the manufacturing community and their agents to raise issues and show concern
• being a sounding board for the brands because they need to know what is possible / what is not and how things can be done.
• understanding the constantly changing generic requirements of the brands and circulate those to the members of the Forum
• being a bridge between manufacturers and brands to have the ideas flow in both directions
• sharing and circulating knowledge among the Forum members on issues such as health & safety, hazardous materials, Corporate Social Responsibility and environmental issues, etc...

Bicycle Committee

The Bicycle Committee gathers the major leading brands and allows them to have a global representation on all levels (Sport, Trade, Social and Environmental issues). The Committee is also the voice of the bicycle industry towards the UCI

UCI

UCI usually refers to the Union Cycliste Internationale, the world governing body for the sport of cycling.UCI may also refer to:* United Cinemas International* United Kennel Clubs International...

 and the International Olympic Committee.

The Committee is dealing with, among others:

• UCI rules & regulations
• collaboration on development of sport
• CSR: supply chain and suppliers manufacturing process
• Legal: REACH, CPSC, etc and IP
  Intellectual property
  Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
  
   rights violations and protection.
• cooperation with all kind of bicycle related advocacy organizations (e.g. Colibi/Coliped, Bikes Belong, ECF, ETRA, TBEA)
• Trade: custom regulations

A sub-group (Bicycle Technical Committee) has been formed to deal with UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale - International Cycling Union)

UCI

UCI usually refers to the Union Cycliste Internationale, the world governing body for the sport of cycling.UCI may also refer to:* United Cinemas International* United Kennel Clubs International...

 issues.

History

The WFSGI was founded in 1978.

In February 1976, Henri ROSSOLLIN, President of the Fédération Française des Industries du Sport et des Loisirs (FIFAS), and Howard BRUNS, President of SGMA

Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association

The Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association is a trade association of the retailers, manufacturers and marketers of the sporting goods industry. The SGMA was founded in 1906 in New York, and is currently based in Washington, D.C. Currently, the SGMA represents over 1,000 manufacturers, retailers...

, met at the NSGA Show in Chicago and exchanged ideas about an international cooperation in the sporting goods industry. In Fall of 1976, John VERMEULEN, President of European Sporting Goods Manufacturers, organized the first World Congress of the sporting goods industry. In Spring 1977 in Chicago, a Committee of five was constituted representing Hong Kong, Japan, U.S.A., India and Europe.

In Spring 1978, this Committee of five was enlarged to a Committee of nine with the following members:

• Armin Dassler (Germany)
• A.D. Bhutta (Pakistan)
• Howard Bruns (USA)
• D.N. Budhraja (India)
• Chiun Yin Kao (Taiwan)
• Heinz Koch (Canada)
• Henri Rossollin (France)
• John Vermeulen (Netherlands)
• Hideo Matsu-Ura (Japan)

In November 1978, the first Board was constituted under the Chairmanship of David Sealy (UK).

Past Presidents:

• 1978-1980 David Sealy (UK)
• 1980-1983 Leonard Fisher (USA)
• 1983-1986 Kihachiro Onitsuka (Japan)
• 1986-1989 Armin Dassler (Germany)
• 1989-1992 Keith Heyes (USA)
• 1992-1995 Kihachiro Onitsuka (Japan)
• 1995-1998 Stephen Rubin (U.K.)
• 1998-1999 Richard Kazmaier (USA)
• 1999-2001 Stephen Rubin (U.K.)
• 2001-2004 Masato Mizuno (Japan)
• 2004-2007 Michel Perraudin (Europe)
• 2007-2011 John E. Larsen (USA)

Honorary President: Mr. Kihachiro Onitsuka (Japan) and Mr. Stephen Rubin (UK)