Word: nike
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...Nike simply touts its momentum. A dozen years ago, the company registered a paltry $40 million in annual soccer-related sales. That figure is approaching $1.5 billion, according to Nike. "We're very happy with our position," says Don Remlinger, Nike's global soccer chief. "If it's making others uncomfortable, that's not our issue." Some of that business came from Adidas; a lot came from Puma, once a dominant soccer brand (started by Dassler's brother) and now enjoying its own renaissance. Smaller brands were crushed under the weight of the marketing spending by the two big guys...
...Nike's soccer standing is impressive because, for the company's first 27 years, it basically ignored the sport. Nike built itself into the world's top sports brand by capitalizing on the 1970s jogging boom and the growing global infatuation with basketball in the 1980s and 1990s, headlined by the most valuable endorser in corporate history, Michael Jordan. Adidas seemed invincible in soccer because the sport put the company on the map. For the 1954 World Cup in Bern, Switzerland, Dassler had designed the first soccer shoe with replaceable cleats, or screw-in studs, at the bottom. An hour...
...time the World Cup rolled into the U.S. in 1994, however, Nike sensed a chance to expand its global profile. "Phil [Knight] realized that to be relevant and leading in the world of sport, not just in the United States, you have to be a leading brand in the world's most popular game," says Remlinger. And of course, the company wanted to crush a stumbling Adidas--which had lost $100 million in 1992--for good. By 1997, in true Nike fashion, the company signed an iconic endorser--the Brazilian national team, fresh off its '94 World Cup victory...
...Nike also scooped up such world-class stars as Brazilians Ronaldinho and Ronaldo, British sensation Wayne Rooney and American Landon Donovan to wear the company's boots. It paid marquee European clubs--Manchester United and Arsenal in England, Juventus in Italy and FC Barcelona in Spain--to wear the Swoosh on their kits...
Although Adidas has doled out millions to be the official sponsor at each World Cup since '94, Nike crashes the gate every time. In 1994, an unmarked van pulled up to the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla., before a match, recalls Jeffrey Bliss, chief marketing officer for World Cup '94. The driver dropped off about 150 free Nike caps--JUST DO IT, BRASIL, they read--which soon became one of the hottest items at the event. In France, Nike's "Tour de Foot" caravan brought free clinics to some 50,000 kids around the country, and the company...