Toys and Sporting Goods, Strong in Sports Gear and Still Emerging in Toys

In October 2024 a range of wooden hockey sticks sold under the England Hockey brand was pulled from the market. England Hockey is the sport's governing body in England, so this wasn't some no-name listing. The UK product safety regulator had found "excess concentrations of phthalates" and called it "a serious chemical risk", and the sticks were made in India (OPSS product safety report, October 2024 (opens in a new tab)).

That one case says two things, and this page is built around both of them.

A national sports body chose an Indian maker for its own branded sticks, which tells you India's sports-goods craft is trusted at a serious level. And the failure had nothing to do with the wood or the shape. A chemical in the finish did it, the part nobody thinks of as the product. Below we answer the questions buyers ask about this industry, roughly in the order they ask them, and the awkward answer comes first.

Is India a Big Toy and Sports Goods Exporter?

Not in toys. In sports goods, it's a real niche.

The figures clash, and we'd rather show you why than quietly pick the flattering one. The government says toy exports reached about US$326 million in FY2024-25, up from US$96 million ten years earlier (PIB, Strengthening India's Toy Ecosystem (opens in a new tab)). The think tank GTRI reported US$152 million for FY2023-24 (Business Standard, May 2024 (opens in a new tab)). And the whole of HS chapter 95, which adds games and sports equipment, came to about US$604 million in calendar 2025 according to a trade-data aggregator (Trading Economics (opens in a new tab), Indicative).

Most of the gap is scope - which HS lines count as "toys", and whether sports goods are in or out. India's official commodity list doesn't even give sports goods a line of their own. They're tucked inside engineering goods.

Whichever number you go with, India is a small toy exporter next to China. A research paper from India's own trade institute found that the toy quality rules didn't significantly raise exports (IIFT WTO Centre, Working Paper 92 (opens in a new tab), Reported). The broader picture is on India's export industries.

Where India Is Good

Sport, wherever the craft is wood, leather and willow. Uttar Pradesh names sports goods as Meerut's district product, and it's the only sports location we can source officially. Cricket bats, balls, hockey sticks and protective gear carry the reputation, and the England Hockey case shows you the kind of buyer that reputation reaches. The town profile is on Meerut. Jalandhar in Punjab is just as famous for sports goods, but we found no official source for it, so we're leaving it out rather than guessing.

In toys, the strength is wood and handcraft, not plastic and electronics. Varanasi's district products include wooden toys on the state's ODOP list, and the product page is Wooden toys.

After mass plastic or electronic toys? India is building that industry behind high import duties, but it isn't a deep export base yet, and we'd test it hard before committing a range to it.

Does the Indian BIS Mark Cover Safety?

No, and this one catches people out. Since the Toys (Quality Control) Order, 2020 took effect, toys made in or imported into India must carry the BIS Standard Mark against the IS 9873 series. But the order applies "except for export" (Toys (Quality Control) Order, 2020, as summarised by STC (opens in a new tab)).

So an Indian factory exporting to you doesn't need the mark, and even if it has one, the test was set by India's standard and not your market's. Treat it as a sign the factory knows what a test lab is, and nothing more.

Which Rules Apply in Your Market

The rules depend on where you sell, not on India. Here they are in brief.

United States

Children's products need third-party testing at a CPSC-accepted lab and a Children's Product Certificate, which is filed electronically with CPSC from 8 July 2026 (CPSC (opens in a new tab)). The limits are 100 ppm total lead in accessible parts and 0.009% lead in paint (CPSC, total lead content (opens in a new tab)). Two of the Indian recalls we found were lead paint - a family croquet set in 2024, where the mallet coating also failed the phthalates ban, and a wooden stacking toy in 2022 (CPSC croquet recall (opens in a new tab), CPSC stacking toy recall (opens in a new tab)).

United Kingdom

Toys follow the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011, with UKCA or CE marking and a GB responsible business. In 2023 a toy cricket set from India was "rejected at the border and destroyed" for phthalates (OPSS, August 2023 (opens in a new tab)). The wider UK rules are on India to the UK.

European Union

Today it's CE marking and a technical file under the Toy Safety Directive. A new Toy Safety Regulation, (EU) 2025/2509, was published in December 2025 and applies from 1 August 2030 (SGS summary (opens in a new tab), Supported). French and Swedish authorities have flagged Indian toys again and again for N-nitrosatable substances in plastic and foam, and one stacking toy for lead migration of 64 mg/kg (our analysis of EU Safety Gate).

Australia and New Zealand

Both have mandatory standards for some children's products, such as toys for under-threes. The lists change, so check your product against them with your importer or test lab.

What to Test First

The pattern in the records is clear enough to plan around. The wood, willow and leather rarely fail, but the finish often does. So put your test money here -

• Paint and coatings for lead, on every colour.
• Plastic grips, stickers, PVC parts and foam for phthalates, and rubber or foam for N-nitrosamines if your market is the EU.
• Small parts on anything a child under three might handle. A pétanque set's jack and a stacking toy's duck bill both failed here.

Ask your supplier who supplies the paint, varnish and grips. Plenty of good sports-goods makers buy these in, which is perfectly normal, but the chemical risk sits with that supplier. Test production pieces, not the pretty samples. The test plan for each market is on destination test plans.

Back to the Hockey Sticks

The England Hockey sticks show the opportunity and the trap in a single product. Indian makers can build sports equipment good enough to carry a national federation's name, and one untested coating can still pull it off the shelf.

If you're buying Indian sports goods, buy the craft with confidence and test the finish as if the whole order depends on it, because it does. And if you want someone to pull samples off the production line and send them to a lab you choose, SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) arranges that at origin.