Adidas Olympic Push Aims to Overtake Nike in the U.K.

Adidas Group, the official sportswear sponsor of the 2012
Olympic Games, said it plans to use its London 2012 Olympic Games sponsorship to overtake Nike and become the leading sports apparel brand in the U.K. by 2015.
Adidas it is expecting to sell 100 million pounds worth of Games merchandise but is also
installing more than 100 temporary sports facilities across the country to encourage sports participation and further
drive brand recognition following the Games.

“I am happy to announce that our preparations for the London
2012 Olympic Games are going according to plan. As the Official Sportswear
Partner of London 2012, we will use the Olympic & Paralympic Games to
become market leader in the UK,” said Herbert Hainer, Adidas Group CEO, in a
statement.

Nike is currently market leader in the UK with an 18 percent
share of the £4.3bn sportswear market. Adidas is in second
place with a 15 percent share, according to the Telegraph.

At a media event in London on Friday, Adidas Group’s
officials, including Hainer, shared details about the Adidas Group’s UK
business as well as Adidas Olympic strategy.

Adidas will be supplying the uniforms to 25 of the 26
Olympic sports (excludes equestrian) while dressing the 70,000 Olympic
volunteers for the Games.  It also will provide
the outfits for the pre-games torch relay and create apparel for the athletes
to wear in the Olympic Village.

Adidas said it has appointed fashion designer Stella
McCartney  as the creative director of
Team GB, the host team. It is also working closely with the London Olympic Games
Organising Committee (LOCOG) in contributing to the sustainability goals of the
Games. All adidas volunteer uniforms, torch relay outfits and athletes
village wear will contain sustainable components.

“As part of our environmental strategy we are contributing
to making London 2012 the sustainable Games: All 1.5 million products which we
will be providing to the volunteers will contain sustainable components. By
launching around 100 multi-sport facilities called adiZones across the UK we
make sports participation accessible for everyone and leave a true Olympic
legacy,” added Herbert Hainer.

adidas is determined to increase sports participation in the
UK and will have set up more than 100 adiZones across the country by the time
the Games start. The adiZones promise to offer people across the UK access to sport and
enable them to lead a healthier, more active lifestyle. Each adiZone is a
free-to-use outdoor multi-sport installation incorporating basketball, football
and tennis areas as well as a climbing wall and an outdoor gym. So far, 50
adiZones have been set up across England by local communities together with
adidas.

Adidas has invested around 100 million pounds in the 2012 Olympics. This
figure is split between the cost of becoming an official partner, the cost of
manufacturing the clothes for the athletes, the volunteers and the retailers
and the cost of marketing the ranges and the company.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Gil Steyaert, Adidas’s managing director of market north in the region, said Adidas is the most popular brand in certain areas of the north of
England, such as Liverpool. But must gain ground in the city of London to overtake Nike.

“London is a place where we dont have leadership yet. While we do have leadership in other parts of the UK, London is crucial,” he said.