How UP's Meerut is emerging as India's biggest sports goods hub

Meerut in Uttar Pradesh is asserting itself as India's biggest sports goods manufacturing hub, with the city's factories and workshops supplying equipment to athletes and retailers across the country and beyond, according to a detailed India Today feature on the city's rising industrial profile.

Meerut's association with sports goods manufacture is decades old, but the current scale and ambition mark a step change. The city produces a wide range of equipment — from cricket bats to protective gear and field sports accessories — and has built a supply chain that serves both grassroots and elite sport. Local entrepreneurs have increasingly professionalised operations, moving from cottage-industry scale to organised production.

The broader context is India's surging interest in sport. With cricket's commercial machine running at full tilt, a growing kabaddi economy, badminton's rise, and India's Olympic ambitions drawing government attention, demand for domestically produced sports goods is rising sharply. Meerut is positioned to benefit directly from this wave, particularly as the government's Make in India push encourages buyers to source locally.

For the region, the implications are significant: sports goods manufacturing in Meerut supports thousands of jobs and small businesses. If the hub continues to scale, it could reduce India's dependence on imported equipment and give the city a distinctive economic identity in the national sporting story.