Reaching Across Silos to Increase Global Physical Activity Levels [Podcast Series]

Emma Zwiebler is the Interim CEO at the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry.
She is a former professional athlete.

“But one of the key things for our work, particularly around physical activity, is the partnerships that we have. We very much believe that particularly in the case of physical inactivity levels globally, which I'm sure we'll come on to, it's not something that can be resolved by the industry alone. It can't be resolved by governments alone or by policymakers or NGOs. We have to find a way in which we can work together if we are to transform behavior on a global level.”

“But there we had the opportunity to join the dots between why people being more active and therefore more resilient from a health standpoint is critical for a sustainable future.”

“But I think we also have to find somehow a better way to communicate the importance of movement, and maybe physical activity as a phrase is the aspect that lets us down. My husband actually calls me a physical activity activist. So, but I do agree with you that it's a challenge somehow to get the message to cut through and that's one of the big things that we're trying to work on with our key partners.”

[9:37] Physical inactivity as an existential threat to the sporting goods industry

“And I think we do have to do that journey to look back to understand how we've ended up where we are today. I think maybe the first thing to say is that this is an industry that has skin in the game if you want. The less active people are, generally the less people consume our products. And so the future growth of our industry is intrinsically linked to activity levels and current trends pose what we really consider to be an existential threat to our industry.”

“When you look at physical activity or increasing physical activity levels globally, we are talking about large-scale behavioral or societal change and that cannot be achieved by individual industries, so sporting goods industry alone, or governments or local community organizations alone. Specifically for that reason that there's so many different touch points that affect whether a child or an adult will first of all be interested or motivated or engaged to become, to play sport or be active.”
“It's quite similar to some of the messages that you have around your podcast and the ambition is that we want to be part of a collective wave of change that drives a more active planet. We do recognize it's an ambitious goal. But we believe that private sector collaboration and private sector engagement in these big societal topics can have a meaningful and sustained impact, particularly where you have this unique alignment of public and private sector goals.”

[26:01] Reaching across silos
- “But what I can say is that, that action of reaching out across the silos is so important, because it's given us a platform. We're not there yet, as I said, but it's given us this platform and this opportunity to try to showcase change, and to try to showcase the impact that we can have by working together—totally different organizations, totally different stakeholder groups.”

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