Rubin, who is deputy chair of the Pentland Group, was inducted at the organisation's General Assembly in Munich.

He took the opportunity to thank the outgoing chairs Motoi Oyama and James Zheng for their reign.

"Together as the sporting goods industry, we can have a positive impact on the most important global issues and especially climate change, inequality and protectionism," Rubin said.

"An increased awareness of the benefits of physical activity are a good sign for our industry, but according to the WHO one in four adults and 81% of adolescents globally do not do enough physical activity.

"The WFSGI serves the sporting goods industry to enable people to be physically active on a healthy planet.

"During my tenure I would like to see our industry continue to work together to reduce our impact on the planet, inspire more people to move more and promote free and fair trade."

There were also nine new members appointed to the panel in the form of Lee Ivan, Ton An-beek, Akito Mizuno, Colin Li, Killick Datta, Holger Schwarting, Tobias Groeber, Charles Yang, and Shuichi Koseki.

"Over the past couple of years the sporting goods industry has experienced a major shift," said WFSGI President and chief executive Robbert de Kock.

"We have been able to support our members successfully with leading sources of insights, knowledge and resources.

"Together with our partner McKinsey we have been analysing the state of the sporting goods industry for the past years.

"Currently, our Sporting Goods Report 2023 is underway and we can see a few trends that create an almost unparalleled challenging environment for our industry.

"Geopolitical developments, disrupted global supply chains, and rapidly rising interest rates, and borrowing costs point to a looming global economic recession.

"With an operationally excellent infrastructure and relevant services in place, we strive to support our members to get ahead of the curve."