Adidas Vs Nike, Who Will Win The Battle Of Sports Shoes?

Sports shoes are a big market. In 2018, the global sports shoes market was worth 58 billion US dollars, and it is expected to increase to 88 billion US dollars by 2024. Such a market scale is a lucrative market for sports brands, and market share competition is fierce.

Although there are many new companies entering the market in recent years, such as APL, the market is still dominated by a few heavyweight companies. Nike (Nike) and Adidas (Adidas) have long been competing for the world's trump card in the field of sports shoes. For anyone who has read the wonderful work of Phil Phil (Shoe Dog), you will find that the competition between the two brands is the driving force for their success.

But who is the dominant player in this never-ending battle? Who is the boss of the sports shoes market?

　　 income

Let's start with the income of these two brands. Nike has a wider business in the world. In 2018, Nike's footwear revenue exceeded $24 billion 200 million, while Adidas's footwear revenue was $15 billion, so Nike could be regarded as the market leader of the global sports shoe industry. These figures include not only Nike and Adidas brand shoes, but also CONVERSE (Converse) (Nike's brand) and Reebok (Reebok) (Adidas's brand).

In terms of revenue growth, the footwear industry of Adidas has increased by US $5 billion 800 million at an average speed of 17.6% since 2015, while the Nike shoe industry has increased by 43 billion US dollars at an average speed of 6.8%.

Share price

Obviously, capital is one of the decisive factors in considering who will win in the market. As of July 2019, Nike's market value was $140 billion, which was two times the market value of Adidas's $65 billion, indicating the size of the two companies.

Adidas's performance in 2019 was stronger because Adidas's stock price outperformed the market, while Nike's share price continued to grow with industry performance.

Factors of "cool"

Adidas seems to have won this goal again. Compared with Nike's more emphasis on sports marketing, Adidas has adopted another way of marketing, that is, through "cool" cooperation with influential celebrities such as music and Kanye West (Kanye West) and Beyonce (Beyonce), more efforts will be put on street style sports shoes. Obviously, as sports and leisure wind go from the gym to the office, Adidas believes they can occupy more markets in this way.

Rap singer West (Kanye West) is one of the best people to understand the competition between Adidas and Nike. He has made a fortune with the two companies. Recently, Kanye West ranked third in Forbes's 100 highest earning celebrity list in 2019.

Kanye's star status is beyond doubt. He is one of the most popular and successful rappers in his generation. His marriage with Kim Kardashian has made them one of the most famous couples in the world. Just three years ago, Kanye told twitter that he owed $53 million in debt, and now it is reported that the singer's income is at least 150 million dollars a year before taxes. The main reason for his fortune is that he built a $1 billion fashion empire through the brand Yeezy of sports shoes.

Kanye initially co worked with Nike to sell Yeezy sneakers and launched three models in five years of cooperation. In 2014, Kanye made a shocking statement that he was doing an incredible thing and turned to cooperate with Nike's competitor Adidas. The first batch of Adidas Yeezys was launched in February 2015, and the cooperation between the two sides has become one of the most successful partnership in history.

Yeezy's sales are expected to exceed US $1 billion 500 million by the end of this year, and its popularity growth has no signs of slowing down.

The main partner of Nike is another totally different type of celebrities. Basketball players Michael Jordan (Michael Jordan) designed Nike Jordan (Air Jordan) series sneakers currently occupy the top of the celebrity sports shoes brand, creating about $3 billion a year in sales. The first batch of Jordan shoes were launched in 1985. Therefore, although they are still popular, they are now a mature sports shoes brand, which can no longer be described as a "cool" factor.

Nike clearly realized this and took action in 2018 to solve this problem by sponsoring Paris Saint Germain Football Club (Paris). This made the football club the first Jordan dress club and placed the emphasis on their global superstars Neymar and Kilin Mpape.

For Nike and Adidas, the battle for the supremacy of shoemaking continues. This is the basis for the success of the two companies, especially when both sides are pushing the other party directly towards consumer relations. Nike may be a bigger company, but with sponsorship and "cool" help, Adidas is clearly closing the gap. Author: Cally Russell