February 17 – Adidas’ recent signing of the world’s second best player Lionel Messi (according to recent awards events) to a lifetime deal may be a reflection of their overall brand positioning when it comes to winning. An analysis of Europe’s big club competition winners over the past 10 seasons finds that 51.4% of teams wore Nike kit, while Adidas were in second place with 28.5% of teams wearing their kit.
The analysis by Voucher Codes looked at the last 10 and the top five leagues in Europe, plus the Europa League and Champions League – a total of 70 competition winners.
The two giants of the sports appareil market are way ahead of next placed Puma and Umbro who are joint third in the standings with 5.7% each.
Challenger brand Under Armour doesn’t show at all in the chart but these are still early days for them. A mooted deal with Real Madrid – currently with Adidas – could reshape the table slightly in coming years.
The research threw up some interesting club management data as well. For example, Sevilla FC have had a sustained success in the Europa League, but they are also prone to changing their kit supplier. Their four competition wins in the last 10 years have come under three different kit manufacturers.
The Champions League results reflect the dominance of Nike and Adidas in the market, as they’ve produced the kit for five winners each.
The Premier League, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 had the widest variety of winning clubs, and this led to them also having the greater range of kit manufacturers.
The Bundesliga is the one competition where Nike are not prominent, with only one winner in the past 10 years, in that time Kappa produced the kit for the two title wins of Borussia Dortmund.
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