It all started in 1997 when, on the instructions of FEDAS (the European Federation of Sporting Goods Retailers), a task force made up of representatives from European sporting goods retailers and international manufacturers started working on the standardization of sporting goods product data. One year later, the FEDAS product classification key (PCK) was produced and made available for a small fee via the internet.
In September 2016, our organization changed its name to SGI-DHO (Sporting Goods Industry Data Harmonization Organization) as our activities were not limited to Europe anymore.
Today, the FEDAS PCK has undergone several smaller and larger updates and now comprises over 10.000 active PCK codes. It is translated into six different languages and further standard codes like colour, age, gender and size codes have been added. The latest sports that have been added are Padel and Field Hockey.
Our goal is to constantly improve our product classification key (PCK) to match the requirements of the sporting goods industry, and to promote and spread it across the whole sporting goods industry. To help us do this, you are more than welcome to become a member of our task force, too.