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Sporting goods, equipment and apparel brands are discovering the incredible potential of user-generated content (UGC) to create meaningful connections with their athletic audience. From Instagram athletes to TikTok fitness enthusiasts, customers are becoming powerful brand advocates through their training journeys and authentic content.
UGC offers sports brands a cost-effective way to showcase their products in real athletic scenarios. As modern sports enthusiasts increasingly seek inspiration from fellow athletes rather than traditional advertising, this authentic content becomes invaluable for building trust and driving engagement.
User-generated content goes far beyond just providing social proof. It alters the relationship between sports brands and their customers into a two-way conversation, where consumers become an active part of the brand story.
Whether it’s athletes sharing their training routines or users posting detailed equipment reviews, these authentic experiences give potential buyers a clear picture of how products perform in real athletic and competition scenarios.
In this guide, we’ll explore how leading sporting goods brands have effectively leveraged UGC to enhance their digital presence, build authentic connections, and stand out in an increasingly competitive sports equipment market.
User-generated content has become a powerful tool for sports brands, demonstrating remarkable success in building athlete trust and driving purchase decisions through authentic performance experiences. This genuine, athlete-created content format offers valuable opportunities to showcase products and connect with sports enthusiasts:
By leveraging UGC, sports brands can develop a more relatable, trustworthy, and engaging marketing approach that resonates with athletes while addressing common performance validation challenges. Let’s check some real Sporting Goods brands’ results with UGC.
For Ternua, a sustainable outdoor clothing brand, their challenge has been not only showcasing a large range of products but demonstrating how effective each is when it comes to outdoor adventures.
With such a huge variety of products, Ternua wanted to demonstrate that the brand was the best choice by showing that their products are thought of as reliable and practical. Read the case study on how Ternua benefits from UGC.
So the brand encouraged real customers to share pictures from their outdoor experiences so that they could proudly showcase these photos on their website, displaying a plethora of products in the process.
The perks of this are that Ternua can show off their product catalogue in action, as their adventurous customers prove the suitability of the products in all terrains. Nothing is more convincing than seeing a product being used by real people in real situations.
“We’re a sustainable outdoor brand, but inside of that concept we touch a lot of distinct targets. For example, people that are interested in sports that are more technical like rock climbing and mountaineering, as well as those that enjoy hiking in the mountains or just the use of outdoor style in the city. We’ve made use of the Flowbox collections so that each target can find the user-generated content that best fits and tells the story of their specific outdoor passion.”
Asier Balza – Digital Marketing Manager at Ternua Group
Their UGC strategy was a proven success for Ternua, and the figures really speak for themselves: Ternua has experienced a 17.19% conversion rate increase and a 6.16% interaction rate increase since integrating UGC.
Sporting goods brands encounter a notable challenge: traditional professional photos of products against a white backdrop, on models in a studio (or even staged images of them being used in action) lack the ability to accurately capture the level of passion and joy that authentic images do.
Italian sporting goods brand Scicon Sports offers a wide array of top-quality products for cycling enthusiasts, including eyewear, bags, and apparel.
Scicon products are trusted by four UCI Men’s WorldTour teams and two UCI Women’s WorldTour teams, with over 150 professional cyclists, making it the most popular eyewear brand at the Tour de France. Read the case study on how Scicon Sports benefits from UGC.
Cycling is a sport that has an especially devoted and passionate community surrounding it and the authenticity and genuine enthusiasm captured in UGC are unparalleled. This makes it a powerful tool to foster genuine connections and engagement with customers in this particular niche.
Whether it’s content featuring professional athletes or amateurs, sporting goods products belong in action.
This type of content resonates strongly with potential customers, as it reflects genuine experiences and endorsements from fellow sports enthusiasts and professional athletes as well as offering social proof of both product quality and performance, making it more persuasive than traditional marketing content.
“In terms of how UGC has changed our platform, it can provide a more dynamic and engaging user experience on our homepage and product detail pages. By featuring real customer photos, potential customers can see how our sunglasses look and perform in real-life situations, leading to an increase in conversions and loyalty.”
Christian Pearce, Global Brand Manager at Scicon Sports
With the help of Flowbox, this authentic consumer content featuring their products captured in action has been seamlessly integrated into their website, appealing to their customer base in a visually captivating and engaging manner.
UGC implementation showed that users who interact with UGC convert 3x more, and it also gave Scicon Sports a 4.07% increase in conversion rate.
Unlocking the potential of user-generated content can be a powerful strategy for sporting goods brands like Munich who are looking to build a stronger digital community.
By incorporating content from everyday consumers, businesses can reach a wider audience, foster authenticity, and build trust in their brand. This approach not only amplifies their visibility but also empowers word-of-mouth marketing.
Brands that are attempting to appeal to a wide variety of consumers that are into different sports and activities are faced with the challenge of creating a range of content that speaks to each of those sporting niches.
MUNICH leveraged well-known individuals like sportspeople, but their message lacked the desired impact. Incorporating content from everyday consumers filled this gap, reaching a wider audience and appealing to the different sporting niches surrounding their brand. Read the case study on how Munich benefits from UGC.
By distributing more content created by everyday people the brand serves to encourage more customers to create content featuring their products and tag the brand as well, upping online community engagement.
This approach amplified their visibility and empowered word-of-mouth marketing, which in turn functioned to build a stronger online community around their brand.
“People wear our products with enthusiasm, and we took advantage of all the content they uploaded on social networks to create a community. We have many images of professional players wearing the MUNICH shoes, so it gives the user confidence to see the products being used in professional games. The products can be seen in many different situations, on the street, doing sports, etc. We wanted all this movement to be reflected on the website.”
Andrea de la Mano, Digital Department at Munich Sports
Making Munich’s online community stronger was a top priority. By incorporating user-generated content, it provided their digital community with a multifaceted experience, fostering deeper engagement with the brand at different levels.
The implementation of UGC resulted in a 16.3% increase in average order value and the realisation that users who interact with the UGC convert by 2.1x.
Evoc Sports implements a UGC strategy in order to showcase their backpacks, bike cases, and protective gear in action. By integrating real adventurers’ photos and videos, EVOC transforms technical product specs into visceral proof of durability. Learn how Evoc Sports benefits from UGC.
“Maybe someone wants to buy a backpack and sees that someone also has the water bottle holder for it and says: ‘Okay, I’ll add that to the cart too’. So Flowbox is a really great upselling tool.”
Maxi Ortmeier, Senior Performance Marketing & E-Commerce Manager at EVOC
Evoc’s UGC gallery spotlights not just bestsellers but niche gear, like hydration packs or bike mounts, used by their community. A trail runner’s weathered backpack or a cyclist’s customised travel case offers tangible evidence of performance, while collaborations with athletes like the Red Bull–BORA–Hansgrohe team amplify credibility.
The result of implementing a UGC with Flowbox has been clear for EVOC:
As a global sporting goods retailer, it’s important for Intersport to stand out from the crowd. That’s why they implement a UGC strategy across their website. This content enables the brand to enhance their social proof, showing customers how their products look and function on real people in real environments.
Intersport’s UGC strategy prioritises authenticity over staged perfection. Instead of relying solely on polished product demos, the brand showcases how gear withstands the demands of varied fitness journeys. It shows tangible, relatable proof, helping shoppers align product capabilities with their personal goals.
The Flowbox UGC Platform has many great tools and capabilities that can help any Sporting Goods brand, no matter how big or small. Here is an overview of the key platform features that can help you automate UGC tasks:
Flowbox’s Collection Tool continuously monitors social channels (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and more) for brand mentions, tags, and designated hashtags.
Also, the Media Uploader feature enables your customers to upload UGC directly through your website or via a shareable link – no social media needed.
All captured posts flow into a single dashboard, ensuring your team never misses valuable user‑generated content.
The Moderation tool is a suite of AI‑powered moderation capabilities that lets you curate high‑quality, on‑brand UGC at scale:
Create, schedule, and distribute both user‑generated and branded content across multiple social platforms—all from within Flowbox. This unified interface eliminates manual posting, streamlines your social calendar, and preserves the authentic voice of your community.
Collect valuable customer feedback with highly customisable rating and review forms, moderate high volumes of ratings and reviews from within our platform or opt for auto moderation fields that optimise your workflow, then automatically display them directly on your product pages with different configurations to choose from.
With built‑in Google Analytics 4 integration, Flowbox lets you track every UGC interaction—clicks, conversions, engagement paths—alongside your broader marketing metrics. Use these insights to refine gallery placements, content mix, and UGC campaign tactics in a single, data‑driven dashboard.
For sporting goods brands, implementing a UGC content strategy has become essential for building authentic connections with athletes and fitness enthusiasts. Success stories from professional athletes, trainers, and everyday sports enthusiasts demonstrate that leveraging customer content can significantly impact both brand trust and purchasing decisions.
A well-executed UGC content strategy in sports serves multiple purposes: it showcases real performance across different athletic levels, demonstrates proper equipment usage, validates product durability through genuine reviews, and builds an engaged fitness community.
By incorporating customer training videos, performance testimonials, and detailed product reviews into their digital marketing strategy, sports brands can create a more transparent and relatable shopping experience.
The key to success isn’t just collecting sports content, but strategically integrating it throughout the customer journey. From reposting and repurposing workout clips to product pages featuring real-world performance, customer content should be woven into the brand’s identity, creating an authentic showcase of UGC that inspires and motivates both existing and potential customers.
Book a demo with Flowbox and we’ll show you how a UGC platform can boost your brand sales.
