Background to Nike and Adidas Comparison Assignment

COMPARISON BETWEEN NIKE AND ADIDASByInstitution
Comparison between Nike and Adidas
The competition for production of the best sports apparel and equipment in the world narrows down to the two giants: Nike and Adidas. The companies are the biggest producers of sportswear, fitness equipment, footwear, apparel among others, though they continue to face stiff competition from Under Armour and Puma among others. Comparison of the two companies is imperative in understanding their modes of operation and why they are successful in their niche.
Background to Nike and Adidas
Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman founded the Nike Company in 1964 as Blue Ribbons Sports in the United States, but renamed it to Nike in 1978 (Mahdi et al. 2015). The company majors in the production of apparel and footwear for sports persons, and has for a long time concentrated on the American market. Its name emanated from the Greek goddess of victory and uses the swoosh logo with a slogan “Just Do It”. The company mainly concentrates in making sportswear for basketball and athletics. It has several subsidiaries such as Umbro, Converse, Cole Haan and Hurley, which concentrate on distribution and propagating its diversification policy (Nazir, Shah, & Zaman, 2013).
Adidas, on the other hand, began in 1948 in Germany founded by Adolf Dassler. The name Adidas was coined by the founder, and uses the three stripes logo with its motto as Impossible is Nothing (Iqbal, 2017). The company concentrates in the production of soccer and tennis products, and owns several subsidiaries such as Rockport, Reebok and Umbro among others (Nazir, Shah, & Zaman, 2013). The company has its main base in Germany and has a huge market share in Europe where it is the most popular brand. Its expertise in the production of football products has seen it gain major sponsorship deals in many World Cup tournaments, which highly helped in making popularizing the brand.
Company Brand and Marketing
The two companies for a long time predominantly concentrated on their domestic markets, but are now entering into other international markets as well. This is out of the need to increase sales and diversify due to the increased competition they are facing on their domestic markets. Nike mainly concentrates on branding and marketing and carries out lucrative deals with some of the world’s famous sports personalities to popularise its brand.
25603204723075-5883974723075In 1997, the company in partnership with the famous basketball star Michael Jordan, launched a new brand called Jordan, which featured a popular shoe named Air Jordan (Iqbal, 2017). They get endorsements from other famous sportsmen such as Christiano Ronaldo, Tiger Woods, and Wayne Rooney who use their products to popularise their brand. The company has a strong social media following that is twice that of Adidas, which is important for their marketing strategy. The brand value of Nike was $27.5billion in 2016(Hoium, 2016).
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: Endorsements and Social media presence of Nike and Adidas
Adidas on the other hand, has been successful in the production of sportswear especially in the soccer and tennis games. The company has managed to brand itself through sponsorship of major footb...