When soccer teams battle for the World Cup in Brazil next year, another fight for global supremacy will be played out on the pitches – between Adidas and Nike.In the next round of their tussle to be the world’s biggest sports brand there is everything to play for.
Nike currently owns 14.6 percent of the global sporting goods market to
Adidas’ 11.4 percent, and is whittling away at the German brand’s No. 1
position in Europe. Adidas held 13.2 percent of the western European
sporting goods market in 2012 to Nike’s 12.4 percent, according to
Euromonitor data.”It’s not easy to evaluate (next year’s) collections.
Adidas is definitely putting a lot of effort into winning lost ground,
but a company like Nike won’t rest on its laurels,” said Hans
Allmendinger, head of marketing for German sporting goods retailer
Sport2000.Adidas (ADSGn.DE) has for more than 40 years decorated soccer
kit and shoes with its distinctive parallel lines logo.
It has strong partnerships setting it up well for the coming challenge: a
close relationship with German club Bayern Munich, of which it owns 9
percent, and with FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, for whom it
designs official World Cup kit.Adidas has forecast record 2014 soccer
sales of over 2 billion euros and aims to boost group sales to 17
billion euros ($23 billion) in 2015.U.S. Nike (NKE.N), meanwhile, only
entered the soccer market in 1994. But already it has several major
partnerships with clubs, including English champions Manchester
United.The owner of the distinctive ‘swoosh’ or tick logo, does not give
forecasts for individual sport categories, but it is predicting group
sales of up to $30 billion by 2015 – suggesting it thinks it can put in a
sufficiently strong performance during the World Cup to stretch its
global lead over the German company – and maybe beat it at home too.In
Nike’s first fiscal quarter of 2013, ended August31, it posted an 8
percent jump in sales in Europe. Over the same period, Adidas’ European
sales fell 7 percent
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