CaliSports News

Nike vs. Adidas – To Swoosh Or To Climb?

(Photo via Twitter User )

The battle is on, and no I’m not talking about the usual team v. team fight that we usually discuss here. It’s Nike vs. well, every other athletic brand on the market. (P.S. The Adidas logo is supposed to be a mountain…)

Let’s state the facts before we get too far into this. The Lakers newest show piece, D’Angelo Russell, has joined Karl-Anthony Towns in signing a deal with Nike.

That wasn’t the end of the signings of draft picks though. Adidas countered 13 minutes later by announcing Justise Winslow and Kelly Oubre Jr. have been given their own shoe deals. FUN FACT: Oubre’s Wizards’ teammate, John Wall, is also an Adidas guy. Are these two events related??

Let’s get into this. Nike were able to pick up were Adidas left off by winning the licensing NBA deal which Adidas chose not to renew. Many would say that this is no big deal, because as we all know, Nike is home to many, many, basketball players, shoe deals, and they have the biggest piece of the pie when it comes to the basketball shoe market.

The athletic market is being split into what I would like to call the Sponsorship Trifecta; Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour. 

Adidas have been the silent killer recently, and if you haven’t been paying attention you probably missed some of their best moves. Yesterday a story took over the Internet that reported Adidas has offered James Harden a $200 million deal to entice him to leave the swoosh. How were they able to offer him so much money? My guess would be they are going to use the money that was previously tied up in the NBA licensing deal to land some big names. And yes, this is a very, very, smart move on their part. Think about this. Which has more influence? Every event sponsored by a small logo or one of the most dominant athletes in the game constantly being talked about on TV, Twitter, etc. wearing your products, which leads to others wearing your products and so on and so forth?

Go with me for a second. I am what a few have called an “overly-emotional” Manchester United fan, and I can’t disagree. They are one of the most popular teams in the WORLD, and you can just imagine how many sponsorship offers they are getting daily. For the 2015-16 season, the Red Devils will officially be an Adidas team, meaning all of the Nike gear, stadium seats, scarfs, what have you of last year, has been metaphorically burned. This deal with Adidas is worth £750 million, which is a lot of $$$., over 10 years, it breaks all kinds of records. The kicker is that they took over the areas that Nike failed.

So Adidas has landed the biggest team in the world, for a theoretical 10 years. One point for Adidas, minus one for Nike.

Under Armour is another interesting operation because they are heavily trying to gain some of the market share in the athletic world. See: Stephen Curry, Memphis Depay (Sorry, Manchester United fan coming out again), Misty Copeland, Tom Brady, and Bryce Harper to name a few. Under Armour have also joined the brick and mortar world’s that used to be solely for the big-wigs Nike and Adidas. This is a big step for the company, and my guess is that you will see them becoming very dominant in the years to come.

Below is a breakdown of the basketball athletes currently under Nike and Adidas contracts:

Nike: 

  • Argentina Manu Ginóbili
  • Argentina Pablo Prigioni
  • Australia Andrew Bogut
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirza Teletović
  • Brazil Tiago Splitter
  • Brazil Anderson Varejão
  • Canada Joel Anthony
  • Canada Anthony Bennett
  • CanadaHaiti Samuel Dalembert
  • Canada Kelly Olynyk
  • Canada Tristan Thompson
  • Dominican Republic Al Horford
  • Dominican RepublicUnited States Charlie Villanueva
  • France Boris Diaw
  • France Evan Fournier
  • Georgia (country) Zaza Pachulia
  • GermanyUnited States Chris Kaman
  • Germany Dirk Nowitzki
  • United Kingdom Luol Deng
  • United Kingdom Joel Freeland
  • Greece Giannis Antetokounmpo
  • GreeceUnited States Nick Calathes
  • Greece Kosta Koufos
  • Italy Andrea Bargnani
  • Italy Marco Belinelli
  • JamaicaUnited States Roy Hibbert
  • Lithuania Jonas Valančiūnas
  • Republic of Macedonia Pero Antić
  • Montenegro Nikola Vučević
  • Poland Marcin Gortat
  • Puerto Rico José Juan Barea
  • Russia Timofey Mozgov
  • Spain Marc Gasol
  • Spain Pau Gasol
  • Switzerland Thabo Sefolosha
  • Turkey Ömer Aşık
  • United States LaMarcus Aldridge
  • United States Lavoy Allen
  • United States Lou Amundson
  • United States Chris Andersen
  • United States Ryan Anderson
  • United States Trevor Ariza
  • United States Luke Babbitt
  • United States Brandon Bass
  • United States Bradley Beal
  • United States DeJuan Blair
  • United States Eric Bledsoe
  • United States Trevor Booker
  • United States Chris Bosh
  • United States Elton Brand
  • United States Kobe Bryant
  • United States Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
  • United States DeMarre Carroll
  • United States Vince Carter
  • United States Michael Carter-Williams
  • United States Wilson Chandler
  • United States Tyson Chandler
  • United States Norris Cole
  • United States Nick Collison
  • United States Jae Crowder
  • United States Dante Cunningham
  • United States Anthony Davis
  • United States Ed Davis
  • United States Glen Davis
  • United States Mike Dunleavy, Jr.
  • United States Kevin Durant
  • United States Wayne Ellington
  • United States Tyreke Evans
  • United States Landry Fields
  • United States Randy Foye
  • United States Channing Frye
  • United States Rudy Gay
  • United States Paul George
  • United States Danny Granger
  • United States Danny Green
  • United States Draymond Green
  • United States Tyler Hansbrough
  • United States James Harden
  • United States Tobias Harris
  • United States Spencer Hawes
  • United States Gordon Hayward
  • United States Brendan Haywood
  • United States JJ Hickson
  • United States Kirk Hinrich
  • United States Kris Humphries
  • United States Andre Iguodala
  • United States Kyrie Irving
  • United States Reggie Jackson
  • United States LeBron James
  • United States Al Jefferson
  • United States Richard Jefferson
  • United States James Jones
  • United States DeAndre Jordan
  • United States Ryan Kelly
  • United States Shane Larkin
  • United States Ty Lawson
  • United States John Lucas III
  • United States Shawn Marion
  • United States Wesley Matthews
  • United States Jason Maxiell
  • United States O. J. Mayo
  • United States Josh McRoberts
  • United States Paul Millsap
  • United States Nazr Mohammed
  • United States Greg Monroe
  • United States Jameer Nelson
  • United States Patrick Patterson
  • United States Paul Pierce
  • United States Ronnie Price
  • United States Tayshaun Prince
  • United States J. J. Redick
  • United States Luke Ridnour
  • United States Thomas Robinson
  • United States Brandon Rush
  • United States Mike Scott
  • United States Henry Sims
  • United States Jason Smith
  • United States J. R. Smith
  • United States Amar’e Stoudemire
  • United States Marcus Thornton
  • United States Ekpe Udoh
  • United States Dion Waiters
  • United States Deron Williams
  • United States Derrick Williams
  • United States Brandan Wright
  • United States Nick Young
  • United States Thaddeus Young

Adidas:

  • Australia Albert Yang
  • Cameroon Luc Mbah a Moute
  • Canada Andrew Wiggins
  • Republic of the CongoSpain Serge Ibaka
  • FinlandUnited States Erik Murphy
  • France Alexis Ajinca
  • FranceUnited States Joakim Noah
  • France Nando de Colo
  • France Nicolas Batum
  • Israel Omri Casspi
  • Italy Luigi Datome
  • Italy Danilo Gallinari
  • South Korea Cho Sung-min
  • Lithuania Donatas Motiejūnas
  • United States Kei Harrell
  • Mexico Jorge Gutierrez
  • New Zealand Steven Adams
  • Philippines Chris Tiu
  • Philippines Ronald Pascual
  • Russia Andrei Kirilenko
  • Serbia Nemanja Nedović
  • Serbia Ognjen Kuzmić
  • Slovenia Goran Dragić
  • Spain José Calderón
  • Spain Ricky Rubio
  • Turkey Ersan İlyasova
  • Turkey Hedo Türkoğlu
  • United States Alec Burks
  • United States Antawn Jamison
  • United States Arron Afflalo
  • United States Austin Rivers
  • United States Avery Bradley
  • United States Ben McLemore
  • United States Brandon Knight
  • United States Brook Lopez
  • United States Chauncey Billups
  • United States Chris Copeland
  • United States Damian Lillard
  • United States Darren Collison
  • United States David West
  • United States Derrick Favors
  • United States Derrick Rose
  • United States Devin Harris
  • United States Eric Gordon
  • United States Harrison Barnes
  • United States Iman Shumpert
  • United States James Anderson
  • United States Jeff Teague
  • United States Jerryd Bayless
  • United States Jeremy Lin
  • United States Joel Embiid
  • United States John Salmons
  • United States John Wall
  • United States Josh Smith
  • United States Kenneth Faried
  • United States Marquis Teague
  • United States MarShon Brooks
  • United States Marcus Smart
  • United States Matt Barnes
  • United States Matt Bonner
  • United States Mike Conley, Jr.
  • United States Patrick Beverley
  • United States Perry Jones III
  • United States Peyton Siva
  • United States Quincy Acy
  • United States Reggie Evans
  • United States Robin Lopez
  • United States Rodney Stuckey
  • United States Ryan Gomes
  • United States Sebastian Telfair
  • United States Shabazz Muhammad
  • United States Taj Gibson
  • United States Tim Duncan
  • United States Tim Hardaway Jr.
  • United States Tony Allen
  • United States Tony Snell
  • United States Tyshawn Taylor
  • United States Tyler Zeller

In comparison Nike obviously has a lot more athletes signed, but Adidas are hot on their heels. Don’t count Adidas out just yet! Their marketing team is on point and ready to take back some of what makes Nike so dominant.

What do you think? Do they have a fight on their hands or is this still Nike’s world, and we’re all just living in it? Let me know!

Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things Los Angeles Lakers and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, All the time!

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