Sportswear giant Adidas’s sponsored Germany beat Adidas-sponsored Argentina to win the Adidas-sponsored FIFA soccer World Cup.
But arch rivals Nike’s “Just do it” philosophy may have stolen much of its soccer branding milage with interesting videos, innovative boots and amusing Tweets, Adidas said it had secured “victory on and off the pitch” at the soccer tournament, providing the highest-scoring boots and generating 22 per cent more discussion on social media than Nike.
But more than half the players displayed Nike’s brightly-coloured shoes and it was one of Nike’s new lightweight “Flyknit” boots worn by Germany’s Mario Goetze that volleyed in the winning goal.
Adidas spent 12.4pc of its 2013 revenue of 14.5 billion euros ($19.4bn) on sales and marketing, up from 12.1pc in 2012 and already well above Nike, which spent 10.8pc of sales of $27.8bn in the year to May 31.
Adidas chief Herbert Hainer admitted the company, known for its three stripes logo, was being taken on even on its home turf. But he said second-quarter results – including double-digit growth in Germany, Britain, Spain and Italy and a 41pc jump in soccer sales – showed Adidas was fighting back.
