Adidas Feeling Pressure From Nike on Home Turf
When Emma Agger turned 6, her father, Simon, a die-hard European soccer fan, decided she was old enough to watch the game in its native habitat.
So last summer, they packed their bags in their home not far from Nike Inc.’s Beaverton, Ore., headquarters and headed to Britain. There, in his hometown of Leicester, Agger found that the landscape of this quintessentially European sport had changed and become more American .
“I couldn’t even buy a child’s version of a football ball without it having the [Nike] swoosh on it,” said Agger, resenting what he sees as a U.S. company’s intrusion into a European pastime.
For decades, Adidas-Salomon, founded by German cobbler Adi Dassler, was the unrivaled leader in European soccer merchandise sales. But Nike, the world’s largest manufacturer of athletic apparel, has been making aggressive inroads.
In 1994, when the Oregon company first began courting the soccer market, its global soccer sales were $45 million. Today, industry insiders say, Nike’s soccer sales are hovering at around $1 billion.
Now, Britain’s top two teams -- Manchester United and Arsenal -- both wear the Nike uniform, as do 45 of Europe’s top clubs, compared with 41 for Adidas, the two companies say.
At the European championships in Lisbon this summer, 49% of the winning goals were scored by players wearing the swooshed cleats, compared with 31% for those clad in Adidas shoes with their trademark three stripes.
And in the most surprising reversal, Nike recently announced it had become No. 1 in soccer footwear sales in Europe, edging out Adidas in what analysts say is the most profitable category of soccer merchandise.
“For the first time ever in our history, we became the No. 1 market share leader in football -- or soccer -- on the European continent,” said a beaming Charlie Denson, Nike’s co-president, at the company’s annual shareholders meeting here in September.
Nike declined to release sales figures to back up its claim, but a study conducted by market research firm NPD and cited in published reports confirmed that Nike had clinched 34% of the soccer footwear market in Europe last year, outdoing Adidas, which is hovering at about 30%.
Adidas executives counter that the Herzogenaurach, Germany-based brand is the leader in global market share.
The company says its annual global soccer merchandise sales are about $1.15 billion, or 34.5% market share, compared with Nike’s $1 billion, or 29.8% market share.
“We know that the competition is very fierce in Europe, but when we look at the global picture we’re still the market leader,” said Guenter Weigl, Adidas’ global director for soccer.
And even in Europe, Adidas still leads the pack in soccer jerseys, shinguards, balls -- everything but footwear, the two companies say.
Still, Nike’s gains in a sport that has long been Adidas’ birthright have caught people’s attention.
“It’s a reversal,” said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon.
“All of the significant competitions in Europe last year were won by teams under the Nike banner -- and that brings a lot of authenticity to their message,” Swangard said.
To many European cognoscenti, Nike’s challenge to Adidas on soccer fields is nothing short of war.
“It ain’t over yet -- and it won’t ever be over,” said Dave Boyle, deputy director of Supporters Direct, a London organization for soccer fans. “Nike is American and Adidas is European. Europe is not going to let its sport -- soccer, or whatever you call it -- roll over and go to an American company.”
Nike was created by runners for runners, whereas Adidas is a company whose history is inextricable from that of soccer.
In 1954, as rain pounded the field at the World Cup finals, Dassler pulled out a pair of screw-in studs for each player on the German national team. The studs, now commonplace, allow players to adjust the length of their spikes to accommodate a dry or muddy field. Sports historians say the studs gave Germany the edge it needed to beat Hungary, the pre-tournament favorite.
“Football is in our DNA,” said Kevin Ross, U.S. soccer manager for Adidas.
Nike’s global brand manager for football, Don Remlinger, responds to the criticism of Adidas fans by pointing out that European consumers -- many of whom are too young to remember Adidas’ heyday -- ultimately gave Nike its No. 1 status on the continent.
“The fact of the matter is today’s teenagers in Europe have only known a world in which Nike is a leading football brand,” he said.
But even in America, there are soccer fans who disapprove of Nike.
“Nike just doesn’t get soccer,” said Bruce Franklin, 42, of Portland, who played soccer for the University of South Florida in Tampa. “The reality is it’s a running company that has branched out into other areas. Adidas has always had their head in the sport.”
Adidas executives stress that in key markets, they still have the leading soccer brand, even in the U.S.
Adidas had 52% of the U.S. soccer footwear market last year, compared with 35% for Nike, according to data compiled by SportsScanInfo, a market research firm in West Palm Beach, Fla.
And Adidas recently announced a 10-year, $150-million sponsorship deal with the American Major League Soccer franchise.
Still, though emotions may run high for some, the battle of the brands means little to many fans.
Said Mark Longden, spokesman for the Manchester United Supporters Assn.: “I didn’t even really know that Nike was an American company until very recently.”
