Football kit is a fiercely contested global market, not least between Germany’s Adidas and its US challenger Nike. Adidas is the leading brand and is determined to hold on to that status but is in a fight with Nike for market share. The World Cup is a great chance to showcase what they have to offer.
Football kit is a fiercely contested global market, not least between Germany’s Adidas and its US challenger Nike. Adidas is the leading brand and is determined to hold on to that status but is in a fight with Nike for market share. The World Cup is a great chance to showcase what they have to offer.
Adidas is supplying 12 of the 32 teams competing, more than any rival. It also supplies the balls (and clothing for officials as a sponsor of Fifa. Sport and Markt estimates that Adidas’s sponsorship of its stable of World Cup teams costs it about €85m a year. But Adidas expects to more than recoup this with this year’s sales of football merchandise expected to surpass the record €1.3bn of 2008 (group net sales last year were €10.4bn).
The tournament’s opening match between South Africa and Mexico will feature two teams whose kits are among Adidas’s leading sellers. 1.5bn viewers are expected and they will also see the referees and the ballboys kitted out by Adidas, not to mention the ball itself. However, as is so often the case at the World Cup, this has become a focus of controversy. The ball is likely to be faster than those used before, especially in matches played at high altitude, and goalkeepers in particular have been complaining. However, the new ball has been used in league games in Argentina, Germany and Portugal since last December.
Nike is splashing out as well. It spends €70m on its teams, only €15m less than Adidas. Its teams include England, supplied by Nike-owned Umbro. Nike’s recent deal to succeed Adidas as sponsor of France is believed to be the most expensive in world football. They have also spent a lot of money on a lavish three-minute advert featuring some of the tournament’s top stars. However, Nike-sponsored Brazil is the only international team whose shirts are likely to be bought by large numbers of non-nationals.
What neither firm wants is to see counterfeiters cashing in on the tournament. Fake shirts are rife in many parts of Asia and thousands of counterfeit kits have been seized at the international postal hub in Coventry, England. Border officials and staff from Adidas, Nike and Umbro were involved. It appears that they came from China, Thailand and Malaysia. Britain’s Coalition Government has announced a crackdown on smugglers attempting to cheat football fans.