This is the fifth installment of 'Clash of the Fashion Titans,' an ongoing original series from FashionUnited that examines and compares key fashion retailers from around the world. Nike and Adidas are two of the world's leading active wear retailers. While Adidas has long enjoyed its spot in the sunshine,
Nike recently usurped its German counterpart for the top position in the global sportswear market. Now the two companies continue to compete, enforcing different strategies and tactics to become the world leading retailer in athletic wear.
The growing demand for active wear has lead to the increasing popularity of traditional sportswear brands such as Nike and Adidas, but what really sets these two retailers apart? Is it their brand image? The different marketing campaigns they employ? Their vast fashion collaborations? Or perhaps their approach to succeeding in foreign markets? Peter Walshe, Global Brandz director at Kantar's Millward Brown, believes that difference between Nike and Adidas can be “mainly explained by the gap in profits and the relative size of each of the brands. The brand contribution between the two is much closer than it seems.”
The BrandZ survey, which covers more than 10,000 brands a year across 30 plus countries and questions over 2 million relevant consumers, measures what makes a brand attractive to its target audience by studying three different pillars: Meaningful (how it meets consumer needs), Different (how unique it is in a positive way) and Salient (how it springs to mind and is the spontaneous brand of choice). “Nike is commonly thought of as more creative, desirable and innovate than Adidas, but also more arrogant. Adidas is seen as the more friendly, caring and idealistic brand of the two.”