Adidas, Nike and LiNing : What is at stakes ?

In 4 months, competition will not only be on the field. Equipments brands will represent the best athletes and nations. The two biggest, Nike and Adidas will also face competition from the Chinese giant LiNing.

Europe, the US and Asia, represented by Adidas, Nike and LiNing will try to beat sales record during the Olympics. Nike is, for now, the biggest and most successful company. The Oregon based firm recently bought out the UK firm Umbro. Umbro was a major actor on the soccer field. Nike is increasing the technology in products.

Nike also has street credits, releasing limited Beijing2008 sneakers editions. Here is a few of them.

In this war, Adidas seems to pedal backwards. Even though they released a retro line, called Originals, they lost a huge contact with the French football federation, with which they were under contact with for 30 years. But Adidas is doing well on the Chinese market. They are under contract with the Chinese Olympic national team. They also plan to open two new stores on the Chinese territory until 2010. Moreover, Adidas is selling the official licensed Beijing 2008 apparel. Last strength of the Adidas team is Yao Ming. The Chinese all star player is the most famous athlete in China.

LiNing is the Chinese sports brand. Unknown in the western world a couple of years ago, they are making a push. They sponsor the tennis superstar Ivan Ljubicic. They also sponsor the Argentine and Spanish basketball teams. But there biggest “coup” was signing Shaquille O’Neal and releasing his signature shoe.