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French businessman Malamine Koné is talking a big game. A very big game. The founder and CEO of sportswear maker Airness is explaining his goal of swiftly boosting his company's 2005 predominantly French sales of $150 million to rival those of global giant Nike's $14.7 billion in 2005. Sound a touch fanciful? Don't tell him that. "You know where Puma was five years ago? Deeply troubled," Koné says of the now surging German-American sportswear group, whose sales last year exceeded $2 billion. "And six years ago, Airness scarcely existed. We didn't get this far this...
Airness is imbued with the irresistible cool derived from celebrities the French love most: soccer stars. But how could he swing that when all the pros worth recruiting were already under contract to Nike, Adidas and Puma? "I came up with the concept of the extra sports contract"--getting players to wear Airness in their private life, once their on-field obligations were over." French-African roots were key to signing stars like Didier Drogba, an Ivorian who plays for the top English team, Chelsea. Those ties also allowed Koné to go to the next level, signing Airness...
...into the deep pockets of two soccer-nutty billionaire owners has attracted close to $1 billion in outside investment from new franchises, new team owners, public stadium funding and sponsorship money. Adidas kicked in $150 million to become the league's sole uniform supplier, in part to hold off Nike. MLS is close to a new television-rights deal with ABC/ESPN, one in which it will actually get money for its games, instead of having to buy the time from the networks and hope to sell it. And earlier this year Red Bull, maker of the popular energy drink, bought...
...expletive-of-choice way. Those are the only possible human reactions to viewing Ping Pong, the underground Nike soccer ad that has dribbled around the Web faster than Pelé in his prime. In the spot, Ronaldinho, a Brazilian considered the world's best soccer player, laces up his new Nike cleats, the Swoosh as golden as his game, and then, from the top of the 18-yd. box, fires a soccer ball off the 4-in. crossbar. Before the ball touches the ground, he corrals the rebound on his chest, juggles the ball with his feet and repeats the feat...
...Nike, it's even better that--as many have suspected--the spot is digitally altered. It turns out Ronaldinho is somewhat mortal, even in his new boots. Fans have debated the clip endlessly, and Ping Pong has been viewed 12 million times since its October Web-only release, one of the most popular viral videos on the Internet today. Even for a company known for its winning, edgy marketing, that is a hat trick. By creating a youth-driven buzz so crucial to its leadership in the multibillion-dollar sneaker wars, Nike, based in Beaverton, Ore.the largest sporting-goods company...