Before going into this long debate, lets know how these top brands got their strange names.
Adidas was named by Adolf "Adi" Dassler, the adi and the first three letters of his last name made the combination of Adidas.
The name Nike came from the Greek name for the Goddess of Victory. A better way of naming a company.
Lets compare two shoes of the two brands:
They both make great shoes, but there must be something that differs perspectives of some people, in thinking that Nike is better, and some evidence in this is at the end of 2008, Adidas brought in $14.5 billion, while Nike brought in $18.6 billion.
The best way of seeing which brand/company is better is by seeing who wears them.
Nike sponsors national teams such as: Netherlands, England (Umbro, owned by Nike), France and Brazil.
Nike also sponsors Inter Milan, Juventus, Werder Bremen, Manchester United , Arsenal, Manchester City (Umbro owned by Nike) and the world club champions FC Barcelona.
Adidas on the other hands also sponsors big teams like: Argentina, Germany, South Africa and the world best national team Spain.
Adidas also sponsors widely known clubs like: AC Milan, Chelsea, Liverpool, Olympique Lyonnais, Ajax, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg.
Both brands don’t just stop at national and club teams; they sponsor the big names in sport too, so there is competition between the two brands to sponsor a player.
Adidas sponsor widely reached sports men and women such as: Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane, Oliver Kahn, Del Piero, Gerrard, Beckham, Novak Djokovic and Sachin Tendulkar (regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket).
Nike sponsors world known sports people like: MJ (Michael Jordan), The Fênomeno Ronaldo, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharopova, Derek Jetter, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carles Puyol.
Let’s compare these publicly renowned brands in terms of their ability to reach widely known stars of each each sport.
Let us start with Soccer,, Adidas gets us started by getting the best player in the world in three years in a row, Lionel Messi, but Ronaldo(who is sponsored by Nike) has about the same amount of fans, maybe less, but brands don’t just look for the players ability, they look at the players faces to see if their face on their product will get them any money or not. Adidas was originally just focused on soccer shoes, so Adidas win the battle in Soccer.
There are three sports which win without any competition and those are cricket which Adidas wins by sponsoring Sachin Tendulkar and baseball which Nike win by sponsoring Derek Jeter also boxing which Nike wins again by sponsoring Manny Pacquiao known as "Pac-Man".
In Tennis,, Adidas have chosen the right men to sponser, they sponsor No.1 and No.2 ranking mens tennis players which are Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, but Nike have chosen the tennis players which are most known such as 5 time No.1 tennis player Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. So in Mens Tennis Adidas is the winner, but in overall Nike win because they sponsor Maria Sharapova, which is No.4 in womens ranking and Nike also sponsor Serana Williams, No.12 in the womens ranking. But in womens Adidas sponsor Ana Ivanovic which is currently placed at No.22.
In golf, Nike win by sponsoring Tiger Woods.
In basketball, Adidas dominate by sponsoring all 30 NBA teams!!! So that easily makes them the winner for basketball. But if you want to look at single players then Nike wins by sponsoring Michael Jordan, who is an icon for basketball, and also sponsoring Kobe Bryant and Lebron James.
Adidas was originally intended to be a product focusing for soccer sportswear. Currently, however, Adidas has spread its target to all sportswear.
Nike began focused on track, but since 1972 has expanded greatly.
A conclusion that can also be drawn is the fact that the pricier products have the more advanced technology, but the technology ideas aren't that different. Nikes are also the ones that are most likely endorsed by famous athletes, which Nike seems to have the upper hand in. In soccer, Adidas definitely has more support.
While Nike has the upper hand in sales and sponserships, Adidas is growing rapidly. Adidas owns Reebok, Taylor Made golf company and Rockport. Nike owns Umbro, Hurley, Converse and Cole Haan.
