NEW YORK, June 25 \u2014 As the World Cup brand battle heats up, sportswear giant Adidas appears to be getting a bigger boost than rival Nike, early data show.<\/p>\n
Both companies are investing heavily in the tournament, but Nike is relying on it for sales and visibility as it tries to right its ship amid years of steadily leaking market share. Investors will be looking for signs of progress next week when Nike reports fourth-quarter earnings.<\/p>\n
Adidas, an official World Cup sponsor and a brand long associated with football, is sponsoring 14 teams and supplying the coveted match ball.<\/p>\n
Nike is outfitting 12 national teams, partnering with local streetwear designers, and refreshing football merchandise at more than 5,000 Nike and wholesale stores globally.<\/p>\n
But while both brands are poised to get a World Cup boost to their apparel businesses, Adidas is benefiting \u201cto a greater degree thus far,\u201d said Drake MacFarlane, a research analyst at M Science.<\/p>\n
Spending on Adidas apparel surged 70 per cent in May from the previous year and stayed strong into June, according to M Science data. MacFarlane attributed the trend to \u201csubstantial growth\u201d in jersey sales ahead of the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Nike\u2019s apparel business is growing as well, he added, but that growth is being outpaced by Adidas, which has \u201cthe right set of product for the consumer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foot traffic data tell a similar story.<\/p>\n
Visits to Adidas\u2019 US stores surged 47 per cent during the first week of the World Cup compared to 2026 averages, versus an 11 per cent jump at Nike\u2019s US factory stores, according to data from Placer.ai, shared with Reuters.<\/p>\n
For Adidas, those visits represented a 16 per cent jump versus the same week last year \u2014 but for Nike, they represented a drop, Placer.ai found.<\/p>\n
While the Nike data only covers outlet stores, the overall findings still indicate that Adidas \u201chas been top of mind for shoppers and may have done a good job in its store activation around the event,\u201d said Elizabeth Lafontaine, Placer.ai\u2019s director of research.<\/p>\n
British retailer \u2060JD Sports said Mexico jerseys \u2014 which are supplied by Adidas \u2014 were its best-selling team kit during the week beginning June 15. Nike\u2019s US team jerseys took the second spot in total sales, the retailer said.<\/p>\n
A bright spot for Nike: 28 per cent of its World Cup merchandise in the US sold out during the first two weeks of the tournament – well above Adidas\u2019 7 per cent, according to a report from LSEG this week.<\/p>\n
Footwear in focus<\/p>\n
Nike has had a strong presence at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
A Reuters analysis found that 232 of the 528 World Cup starters so far have worn Nike boots, with Adidas close behind at 218. \u201cNike is right there\u201d despite Adidas\u2019 close association with Fifa, said David Swartz, an equity analyst at Morningstar. \u201cStrong visibility … is good for its brand strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
World football\u2019s governing body Fifa runs the tournament.<\/p>\n
Nike could use the win: sales have fallen as demand for classic lines like Dunk and Air Jordan has cooled. Competition from newer players like On and Deckers has intensified, and analysts say the company has been slow to pivot to new styles.<\/p>\n
While World Cup visibility can\u2019t hurt, \u201cat the end of the day it\u2019s really all about the product,\u201d said Mari Shor, senior equities analyst at Columbia Threadneedle, which holds Nike stock. \u201cIf [Nike\u2019s] product isn\u2019t resonating, the rest of it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nike\u2019s share of the global \u200csports footwear market has fallen from 29.2 per cent in 2022 to 22.9 per cent last year, according to Euromonitor International data, obtained by Reuters.<\/p>\n
Nike and Adidas have lately traded blows.<\/p>\n
In April, Nike entered exclusive talks to provide balls for certain Uefa football matches, a role that was Adidas\u2019 for 25 years. Later that month, though, Kenyan Sabastian Sawe wearing new, ultra-light shoes from Adidas broke the two-hour marathon barrier, a coup as the two companies battle for sports innovation.<\/p>\n
Nike CEO Elliott Hill, who took the helm in 2024, vowed to refocus Nike on key sports like football and running, saying the company had \u201clost its obsession with sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet it remains the larger company by far, its footwear market share still nearly double second-place Adidas.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s \u201cthe biggest dog in the fight,\u201d said Sarah Henry, a portfolio manager at Logan Capital Management. \u201cIt should be able to hit everybody else pretty hard.\u201d \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK, June 25 \u2014 As the World Cup brand battle heats up, sportswear giant Adidas appears to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21254],"tags":[21290,37057,37055,25920,37056,284],"class_list":["post-42927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adidas","tag-adidas","tag-jd-sports","tag-m-science","tag-nike","tag-placer-ai","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}