There’s another high stakes competition taking place at Euro 2016, only instead of a trophy at the end of it the winner will be crowned as Europe’s top football footwear brand.
Each time a major football tournament takes place, football’s two biggest brands Nike and Adidas face off. Euro 2016 is no different, being the year’s biggest event for the sportswear firms the two giants are gunning for each other, looking to increase on the $2.2 billion they both earned from football boots and gear last year.
Combining our own research and that of a new report by Repucom, you can see how the rivals go head to head:
Adidas Vs Nike | Euro 2016
Football Boot Player Sponsorship
Nike 60%
Adidas 31%
Kit Sponsorship
Adidas 9 teams – 37% | Nike 6 teams – 25%
Official Tournament Sponsors
Adidas 1 | Nike 0
Player Profiles (top 3)
Adidas – Gareth Bale | Paul Pogba | Mesut Ozil
Nike – Cristiano Ronaldo | Wayne Rooney | Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Social Media (football)
Adidas Facebook – 22 million | Nike Facebook – 42 million
Adidas Twitter – 2.8 million | Nike Twitter – 3 million
Adidas Instagram – 13 million | Nike Instagram – 19 million
Video
Adidas – First Never Follows feat. Pogba, Özil, Suárez
2.1 million views – since May 20th 2016
Nike – The Switch
42 million views – since June 9th 2016
Statement
Adidas have released a press statement stating that they expect sales of football boots, shirts and balls to rise by 14% to a new record of €2.5bn in 2016, helped by reclaiming leadership of top European markets for soccer footwear from arch rival Nike.
Adidas was overtaken in the market for football boots in 2014 by Nike. The growth by the US brand prompted Adidas to shake up their boot range and focus their marketing of players and shirts on the elite.
In a bold statement, the Chief executive Herbert Hainer said Adidas had edged ahead of Nike to take 36% of the market for boots in the top five markets in Europe.
Adidas said it expects to sell 1.3 million Germany jerseys this year, helped by the Euro 2016. That is an increase of 1 million sales compared to 2012 when the last Euro’s last took place, but down from the 3 million sales in the World Cup year of 2014, when Germany won the World Cup.
