TrackFly 2025 Year-end Industry Review
Overall, anglers were buying more units, perhaps catching up from lower unit-sales through the prior nine months, and they paid slightly higher average prices across a number of categories.
December sell-through in fly fishing specialty was up +8% over the prior December, capping Q4 with dollar-sales growth that almost disguises what a challenging year it felt like for many in the industry. In fact, Q4 sales were strong enough to finally bring 2025 sales up over 2024 sales, and to finish up +3.5% versus prior year.
To quickly summarize 2025: the first four months were down from the prior year, tracking closely with overall economic indicators across the broader consumer-driven economy. Then from May through September, sell-through strengthened to single-digit growth over prior year. Some economic indicators stabilized during the summer, as talk of tariff wars evolved into “tariff agreements.” Consumer sentiment remained low compared to historical averages, but equity market valuations were returning to historic highs, and many people’s 401k accounts had climbed into record territory.
And during Q4, those higher equity markets likely encouraged some subset of anglers to buy equipment they had been eyeballing all season. In addition, some product prices also began increasing, at least partially–and in some cases, entirely–due to tariffs, according to numerous brands. Not every brand raised prices, and not in every single category, but a substantial portion of brands did across many categories.
So, two factors explicitly influenced Q4 growth over 2024. Overall, anglers were (a) buying more units, perhaps catching up from lower unit-sales through the prior nine months, and they (b) paid slightly higher average prices across a number of categories.
We can expect higher ASP’s (Average Selling Price) to remain a factor through 2026 (versus comparable months of 2025).
One other “growth” note regarding the 2025 full-year sell-through: the “Flies” category sold very well all year, up +7% over 2024. Some of that growth reflected higher ASP’s, but units were up too, indicating that people were definitely getting on the water. Flies is now the second largest dollar-sales category in the channel (behind only Softgoods). It’s often said, “When the economy goes bad, or it goes good, people go fishing.” And that should be encouraging to anyone in this business, no matter what category you specialize in.
To recap: Q4 specialty sell-through was strong enough to turn what started as an “off” season into a year of +3.5% growth over 2024. But not every brand, nor every fly shop, is feeling that growth. The brands and retailers that communicated with each other effectively, efficiently and often enough, were best positioned to grow in 2025, and they likely will again in 2026.
TrackFly is a data aggregation and analytics platform, connecting specialty retailers, brands and sales professionals. They are helping Flylab track key industry trends.
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