Qatar World Cup: Nike defeats Adidas in the $30bn battle of the football kits

This year, Adidas outfit only seven nations at the Qatar World Cup.

This is only the third time Nike has outperformed Adidas, and the biggest gap Nike has ever held over its sporting rival.

Qatar World Cup sponsorships

Countries at the Qatar World Cup with Nike deals include the host nation and the United States, as well as powerhouse teams like Brazil, England and France.

Nike’s popularity comes at the expense of Adidas, which, at the peak of its dominance, outfitted nearly two-thirds of teams at the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Kit licensing deals are essential for sportswear companies in their quest to take a bite of the $30bn global licensed sports merchandise market.

For decades, Adidas had been the primary name on World Cup kits.

The company sponsored nine of the 16 teams at the 1974 FIFA World Cup in Germany and continued their dominance until recently.

Nike, a relative late-comer to football-kit sponsorships, first entered the World Cup fray in 1998 when it sponsored five teams competing in France, and has steadily grown its market share.

An Adidas spokesperson, however, said their company benefits from the prestige of the teams playing in three stripes-embossed jerseys.

“It is not only about quantity but also quality,” said Stefan Pursche, an Adidas spokesperson ahead of the Qatar World Cup.

“We equip four teams among the top favourites for the title; Argentina, Spain, Belgium, and Germany.”

Six of the seven nations playing in Adidas’s kits are ranked among the world’s top-20 teams, according to rankings created by FIFA.

Nike also sponsors top-ranked teams, seven nations it equips at the Qatar World Cup are among the top-20, but it is also tied to lower-ranked teams like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who both rank among the least-favoured teams competing this year.

Nike does however have one big advantage, Brazil, which has won the most titles and is favoured by pundits to win again this year, will be wearing the swoosh at the Qatar World Cup.

Six teams will wear a Puma kit and Hummel, Kappa, Majid, Marathon, New Balance and One All Sports have one team in their jerseys apiece.

The Qatar World Cup is on track to be FIFA’s most lucrative tournament of all time as it is on track to break $5.4bn record of the 2018 tournament in Russia.