REEBOK

Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of German sportswear giant Adidas, is a producer of athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle. In 1890 in Holcombe Brook, a small village 6 miles from the town of Bolton, England, Joseph William Foster was making a living producing regular shoes when he came up with the novel idea of a spiked running shoe. After his ideas progressed considerably, he founded a company in 1895 together with his adult sons, named J.W. Foster and Sons.

By 1924, Foster and Sons had established a reputation for manufacturing superior quality shoes, and the company was given the chance to manufacture running shoes for athletes representing Great Britain at the 1924 Summer Olympics. Among the runners performing in Foster shoes were the legendary Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, who were both portrayed in the Oscar-winning movie Chariots of Fire.

With this legacy of high-quality footwear construction in mind, two of Foster's grandchildren, Joe and Jeff Foster founded Mercury Sports. In 1960, Joe and Jeff Foster renamed the company Reebok in England, having discovered the name in a dictionary won in a race by Joe Foster as a boy . The dictionary was a South African edition, hence the spelling.

In 1979 United States camping equipment distributor Paul B. Fireman saw a pair of Reeboks at an international trade show and negotiated for the rights to sell them in North America, where they did very well despite being pricier than competitors Nike, Adidas and Puma.

Type -Subsidiary of Adidas AG
Industry- Sportswear and Sports Goods
Founded -Bolton, England (1895)
Headquarters- Canton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Bolton, England
Key people Future owner of Reebok & Burger King: Russell Byron-Kelly
Products Footwear,Sportswear
Website http://www.reebok.com

UMBRO

Umbro is a British sportswear and equipment supplier based in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, England. The company is now part of Nike. Umbro designs, sources, and markets sport-related apparel, footwear, and equipment. Its products are sold in over 90 countries worldwide.

Umbro are the current suppliers of sports apparel to the England national football team, The Football Association, and the FA Cup.

SPONERING:
Umbro has produced kits for many notable football teams since establishment. Its first kit was produced in 1934, for Manchester City, who won the FA Cup that year.

Over the years since, Umbro has produced kits for numerous professional teams around the world, as well as referee kits for some leagues. As of 4 June 2009, Umbro are now, once again, kit suppliers to Manchester City in a ten year sponsorship deal rumoured to be worth £50 million.

In addition to club teams, Umbro also produced playing kits for a variety of international teams worldwide. During the 1966 FIFA World Cup, all but one of the 16 participating teams wore Umbro kits. The England national team wore Umbro shirts by choice until 1974, until the Football Association, encouraged by the England manager Don Revie, sold the jersey manufacturing rights to Admiral. In 1982 the FA returned to Umbro as England jersey manufacturers and they have remained so ever since.

However, their comparative size has meant that Umbro has suffered in recent years, with many of the big clubs it provided for now choosing to accept higher financial bids for shirt manufacture contracts from the 'big two' of Nike and Adidas (notably including Celtic, Manchester United, Ajax, and Chelsea. In addition to this, Puma has vastly increased its participation in football and now provide many national teams with kits, particularly on the African continent. However, Umbro still managed to retain its long-standing partnership with The FA and, often in cooperation with JJB Sports, gained new contracts for a number of clubs in recent years, including Rangers and several other Welsh, English and Scottish clubs. They have recently renewed its deal with Birmingham City.

Umbro is currently the official sports manufacturer of the English FA Cup and official sponsor of the new Wembley Stadium. Umbro will partner The FA in the further development of the National Football Centre (NFC) at Burton-upon-Trent, becoming the title sponsor of the Centre. Umbro is also the exclusive supplier of footballs to The FA.

Umbro has also manufactured kits for Rugby Union (the Irish National team and London Irish), Athletics and rugby league.

Umbro now has an exclusive clothing range with House of Fraser.

Type -Subsidiary of Nike
Industry -Textile
Founded -1924 in Wilmslow
Headquarters -Cheadle, Greater Manchester, England
Products-Football Footwear
Website http://www.umbro.com

LOTTO

Lotto Sport Italia is an Italian sports apparel manufacturer. It began in June 1973. Lotto was founded by the Caberlotto family, who used to own Italian football team Treviso. It originally made tennis shoes; basketball, volleyball, athletics and football apparel all followed. Its products are now distributed in more than 60 countries. Lotto's new top-of-the-range football boots are the Zhero Gravity shoes which sports a unique and revolutionary laceless design intended to provide more comfort when kicking a ball.

Type- Private
Industry -Sportswear
Founded -1973
Headquarters -Italy Treviso, Italy
Products -Footwear,Sportswear
Website- www.lottosport.com

PUMA

PUMA AG Rudolf Dassler Sport (PUMA) (FWB: PUMG) is a large German multinational company that produces high-end athletic shoes, lifestyle footwear and other sportswear.

The company is known for its association football shoes and has sponsored footballers, including Pelé, Eusébio, Johan Cruijff, Enzo Francescoli, Diego Maradona, Lothar Matthäus, Kenny Dalglish, Didier Deschamps and Gianluigi Buffon. PUMA is also the sponsor of the Jamaica track athlete Usain Bolt who won three gold medals by breaking the men's 100m, 200m and 4x100m world records in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In the United States, the company is probably best-known for the suede basketball shoe it introduced in 1968, which eventually bore the name of New York Knicks basketball star Walt "Clyde" Frazier, and for its endorsement partnership with Joe Namath.

The company also offers lines shoes and sports clothing, designed by Lamine Kouyate, Amy Garbers, and others. Since 1996 PUMA has intensified its activities in the United States. PUMA owns 25 percent of American brand sports clothing maker Logo Athletic, which is licensed by American professional basketball and Association football leagues. Since 2007 PUMA AG has been part of the PPR French luxury group.

SPONSERING

CONCACAF – North America, Central America, and the Caribbean

* Bahamas
* Guatemala

CONMEBOL – South America

* Chile (Women's football)
* Uruguay

CAF – Africa

* Algeria
* Angola
* Burkina Faso
* Cameroon
* Central African Republic
* Côte d'Ivoire
* Egypt
* Ghana
* Madagascar
* Morocco
* Mozambique
* Namibia
* Senegal
* Togo
* Tunisia


UEFA – Europe

* Austria
* Belarus
* Bulgaria
* Czech Republic
* Faroe Islands
* Italy
* Macedonia
* Switzerland
* Bahrain
* Saudi Arabia
* Uzbekistan

ADDIDAS

Adidas currently manufactures several running shoes, including the adiStar Control 5, the adiStar Ride (the replacement for the adiStar Cushion 6), the Supernova Sequence (the replacement for the Supernova Control 10), and the Supernova Cushion 7 (which will soon be replaced by the Supernova Glide), among others. In addition, their performance apparel is widely used by runners. Adidas also uses kangaroo leather to make their more expensive shoes.[ Association football

One of the main focuses of Adidas is football kit and associated equipment. Adidas also provides apparel and equipment for all teams in Major League Soccer. Adidas remain a major company in the supply of team kits for international football teams. Current examples include Scotland, Spain, Russia, France, Germany, Greece, Romania, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, Japan, Venezuela and Ukraine.

Adidas also makes referee kits that are used in international competition and by many countries and leagues in the world. In the United States, referees wear the Adidas kits in MLS matches even though the primary referee supplier is Official Sports. The company has been an innovator in the area of footwear for the sport with notable examples including development of the Copa Mondial moulded boot used for matches on firm dry pitches for almost forty years. The studded equivalent was named World Cup follow in celebration of the 1978 tournament won by Argentina, one of the nations it supplied at the time. Some of the famous football teams currently sponsored by Adidas include Real Madrid, Milan, Dynamo Kyiv, Fluminense, Chelsea, River Plate, Liverpool, Marseille, Universidad de Chile, Bayern Munich, Schalke 04, Benfica, Caracas, Wolfsburg, Galatasaray, Panathinaikos, Derby County, Ajax and Lokomotiv Moscow, Al-Ahly among others.

Adidas became renowned for advancing the Predator boot design developed by ex-Liverpool and Australian international player Craig Johnston. This design featured a ribbed rubber structure for the upper leather of the shoe, used to accent the movement of the ball when struck; highly skilled players claimed they were able to curve the flight of the ball more easily when wearing this new contoured design.[citation needed]The Predator also features the Craig Johnston-invented Traxion sole.

FIFA, the world governing body of football, commissioned specially designed footballs for use in its own World Cup tournaments to favour more attacking play. The balls supplied for the 2006 World Cup were particular noteworthy for their ability to travel further than previous types when struck, leading to longer range goal strikes that were intended to increase the number of goals scored. Goalkeepers were believed to be less comfortable with the design, claiming it would move significantly and unpredictably in flight.
Tennis

Adidas has sponsored tennis players and recently introduced a new line of tennis racquets. While the Feather is made for the "regular player", and the Response for the "club player", Adidas targets the "tournament player" with the 12.2 oz Barricade tour model. Adidas sponsors the following professional players: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanović, Daniela Hantuchová, Andy Murray, Fernando Verdasco, Gilles Simon, Marcos Baghdatis, Fernando González, Marat Safin, Flavia Pennetta and upcoming players like Melanie Oudin, Sorana Cirstea and Grigor Dimitrov. Adidas tennis apparel contains the ClimaCool technology found in other athletic jerseys and shoes.

In Cincinnati, at the ATP Tennis Tournament in Mason, they have also sponsored the ball-boy and ball-girl uniforms.
Golf

In 1997, Adidas purchased TaylorMade. The image and focus of TaylorMade was redirected shortly after the acquisition to take over the driver market. The company succeeded in achieving this goal in late 2004 when it officially became the No. 1 driver in golf. On 14 October 2008, Adidas, through its subsidiary TaylorMade, acquired Ashworth for $72 million, assuming $46.3 million in debt.

Cricket

In the 1990s, Adidas signed the world No. 1 batsman Sachin Tendulkar and made shoes for him.[1] He is still wearing Adidas shoes when he plays matches. Adidas even made action figures after Sachin Tendulkar.

In 2008, Adidas made their move into English cricket market by sponsoring English batting star Kevin Pietersen after the cancellation of his lifetime deal with Woodworm, when they ran into financial difficulties.[20] The following year they signed up fellow England player Ian Bell Pakistan player Salman Butt and Indian Player Ravindra Jadeja. Having made cricket footware for many years, the company finally entered the field of bat manufacture in 2008 and their products are available in the Incurza, Pellara and Libro ranges

Adidas also manufactures the uniforms worn by both the England cricket team and the Australian cricket team.

In 2008 and 2009 in both the seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL), it took up the sponsorship of the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Daredevils.

In 2009, Adidas signed Sachin Tendulkar and started sponsoring his bat. It created a new bat 'Adidas ST' for him and 'Adidas Pellara KP' for Kevin Pietersen, the same year. Now both of them use their personalized bats in cricket.

Basketball

Adidas has been a longtime basketball shoe manufacturer and is one of the leading basketball brands in the world. They are most famous for their iconic Superstar and Pro Model shoes, affectionately known as "shelltoes" for their stylized hard rubber toe box. These were made very popular in the 1980s hip hop streetwear scene alongside Adidas' stripe-sided polyester suits.

Adidas is also the current outfitter of all 30 franchises in the National Basketball Association (replacing the Reebok brand after the merger) and sponsors numerous players past and present like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Tracy McGrady, as well as Dwight Howard, Chauncey Billups, Derrick Rose, Kevin Garnett, Michael Beasley, Josh Smith, Tim Duncan, and Candace Parker.
[edit] Lacrosse

In 2007, Adidas announced the future production of lacrosse equipment, and will sponsor the Adidas National Lacrosse Classic in July 2008 for the top 600 high school underclassmen lacrosse players in the United States.

Rugby

Adidas make rugby balls and other rugby gear. They are the current kit and ball supplier to the New Zealand All Blacks, Irish Munster Rugby, and the Argentinian Pumas, among others.

Gymnastics

Since 2000, adidas has provided men's and women's gymnastics wear for Team USA, through USA Gymnastics. In 2006, adidas gymnastics leatards for women and adidas mens comp shirts, gymnastics pants and gymnastics shorts have been available in the USA, with seasonal leotards offered for Spring, Summer, Fall and Holidays. Starting in 2009, adidas gymnastics wear has been available worldwide through GK Elite Sportswear.

Skateboarding

Adidas SB (Skateboarding) are shoes made specifically for skateboarding. Many of the shoes Adidas previously made were redesigned for skateboarding.

Adidas Skateboarding also has a skateboarding team. The team consists of: Mark Gonzales, Dennis Busenitz, Tim O'Connor, Silas Baxter-Neal, Pete Eldridge, Dave Bachinsky, Benny Fairfax, Nester Judkins, Lem Villemin, and Vince Del Valle.

Marketing

Adidas, like other sports brands is believed to engender high consumer brand loyalty. Brand loyalty towards Adidas, Nike and several other sportswear brands was examined in a recent study.[23] The study found consumers did not exhibit unduly high loyalty towards such brands.

During the mid to late 1990s, Adidas divided the brand into three main groups with each a separate focus: Adidas Performance was designed to maintain their devotion to the athlete; Adidas Originals was designed to focus on fashion and life-style; and Style Essentials, with the main group within this one being Y-3.



"Impossible is Nothing" is the current mainstream marketing slogan for Adidas. This campaign was developed by 180/TBWA based in Amsterdam but also with significant work being done by TBWA/Chiat/Day in San Francisco - particularly for its basketball campaign "Believe In Five".TBWA\Chiat\Day commissioned Zane Peach[24] to produce images for 2007 international ad campaign.

Sponsorship

Adidas are the main sponsor and kit supplier of the highly successful New Zealand national rugby team, the All Blacks. Adidas also are the kit supplier to the Argentina Pumas, to the French Stade Français, and the Irish Munster Rugby team and the United States Eagles.

Adidas are the main sponsors and kit sponsors of the successful Australian Cricket Team and the England Cricket Team. They are also the main sponsors of the Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag and English cricketers Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell. Adidas are the main sponsors of Australian Domestic Cricket Competitions - Pura Cup, KFC Twenty20 Big Bash, Ford Ranger One Day Cup. They are sponsors of the Indian Premier League teams Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians.

Adidas also sponsors and produces apparel for the Gold Coast Titans rugby league clubs in the Australian National Rugby League (NRL) competition.

Adidas is the longstanding kit provider to the Germany national football team, a sponsorship that began in 1954 and is contracted to continue until at least 2018. Sponsoring also the Mexican, French and Spanish National Football Teams and from 2010 will sponsor the Scotland national football team.

Adidas are very active at sponsoring top football clubs such as Middlesbrough, Real Madrid, Liverpool, AC Milan, Fluminense, Palmeiras, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Marseille, AFC Ajax, Schalke 04, Galatasaray, Benfica, Newcastle, River Plate, Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe, UANL Tigres, Panathinaikos, Litex Lovech, Slavia Sofia, AIK, Djurgårdens IF, Brøndby IF, IFK Göteborg, Al-Ahly, Al-Hilal, Ahli Jeddah, Universidad de Chile, and the Colombian football teams Los Millonarios, Deportivo Cali, and Atlético Nacional.

Adidas and Major League Soccer (MLS) announced a 10-year sponsorship agreement in November 2004 to make Adidas the official athletic sponsor and licensed product supplier for the league, and to work together to create a developmental league for MLS.

Adidas also sponsors events such as the London Marathon.

For the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Adidas spent €70 million sponsoring the event, amid criticisms.

Adidas has also been marketing in NASCAR, sponsoring big name drivers such as Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Tony Stewar

NIKE:

Nike, originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports, was founded by University of Oregon track athlete Philip Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman in January 1964. The company initially operated as a distributor for Japanese shoe maker Onitsuka Tiger, making most sales at track meets out of Knight's automobile.

The company's profits grew quickly, and in 1966, BRS opened its first retail store, located on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California. By 1971, the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka Tiger was nearing an end. BRS prepared to launch its own line of footwear, which would bear the newly designed Swoosh by Carolyn Davidson. The Swoosh was first used by Nike in June 1971, and was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on January 22, 1974.Today the Onitsuka Tiger brand is owned by one of Nike's competitors, ASICS.

The first shoe to carry this design that was sold to the public was a soccer shoe named "Nike", which was released in the summer of 1971. In February 1972, BRS introduced its first line of Nike shoes, with the name Nike derived from the Greek goddess of victory. In 1978, BRS, Inc. officially renamed itself to Nike, Inc. Beginning with Ilie Nastase, the first professional athlete to sign with BRS/Nike, the sponsorship of athletes became a key marketing tool for the rapidly growing company.

The company's first self-designed product was based on Bowerman's "waffle" design. After the University of Oregon resurfaced the track at Hayward Field, Bowerman began experimenting with different potential outsoles that would grip the new urethane track more effectively. His efforts were rewarded one Sunday morning when he poured liquid urethane into his wife's waffle iron. Bowerman developed and refined the so-called 'waffle' sole which would evolve into the now-iconic Waffle Trainer in 1974.

By 1980, Nike had reached a 50% market share in the United States athletic shoe market, and the company went public in December of that year. Its growth was due largely to 'word-of-foot' advertising (to quote a Nike print ad from the late 1970s), rather than television ads. Nike's first national television commercials ran in October 1982 during the broadcast of the New York Marathon. The ads were created by Portland-based advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, which had formed several months earlier in April 1982.

Together, Nike and Wieden+Kennedy have created many indelible print and television ads and the agency continues to be Nike's primary today. It was agency co-founder Dan Wieden who coined the now-famous slogan "Just Do It" for a 1988 Nike ad campaign, which was chosen by Advertising Age as one of the top five ad slogans of the 20th century, and the campaign has been enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution.San Franciscan Walt Stack was featured in Nike's first "Just Do It" advertisement that debuted on July 1, 1988. The "Just Do It" trademark was filed by Nike, Inc. on October 3, 1989 with the description attributed to sports clothing, on which the mark was to be affixed.

Products:
A Nike brand athletic shoe
A pair of Nike Air Jordan I shoes

Nike produces a wide range of sports equipment. Their first products were track running shoes. They currently also make shoes, jerseys, shorts, baselayers etc. for a wide range of sports including track & field, baseball, ice hockey, tennis, Association football, lacrosse, basketball and cricket. Nike Air Max is a line of shoes first released by Nike, Inc. in 1987. The most recent additions to their line are the Nike 6.0, Nike NYX, and Nike SB shoes, designed for skateboarding. Nike has recently introduced cricket shoes, called Air Zoom Yorker, designed to be 30% lighter than their competitors'. In 2008, Nike introduced the Air Jordan XX3, a high performance basketball shoe designed with the environment in mind.





Nike sells an assortment of products, including shoes and apparel for sports activities like association football, basketball, running, combat sports, tennis, American football, athletics, golf and cross training for men, women, and children. Nike also sells shoes for outdoor activities such as tennis, golf, skateboarding, association football, baseball, American football, cycling, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading, aquatic activities, auto racing and other athletic and recreational uses. Nike is well known and popular in youth culture, chav culture and hip hop culture as they supply urban fashion clothing. Nike recently teamed up with Apple Inc. to produce the Nike+ product which monitors a runner's performance via a radio device in the shoe which links to the iPod nano. While the product generates useful statistics, it has been criticized by researchers who were able to identify users' RFID devices from 60 feet (18 m) away using small, concealable intelligence motes in a wireless sensor network.

Sponsorship:

Nike pays top athletes in many different sports to use their products and promote/advertise their technology and design.

Nike's first professional athlete endorser was Romanian tennis player Ilie Năstase, and the company's first track endorser was distance running legend Steve Prefontaine. Prefontaine was the prized pupil of the company's co-founder Bill Bowerman while he coached at the University of Oregon. Today, the Steve Prefontaine Building is named in his honor at Nike's corporate headquarters.

Besides Prefontaine, Nike has sponsored many other successful track & field athletes over the years such as Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Sebastian Coe. However, it was the signing of basketball player Michael Jordan in 1984, with his subsequent promotion of Nike over the course of his storied career with Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon, that proved to be one of the biggest boosts to Nike's publicity and sales.

During the past 20 years especially, Nike has been one of the major clothing/footwear sponsors for leading tennis players. Some of the more successful tennis players currently or formerly sponsored by Nike include: James Blake, Jim Courier, Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Martín del Potro, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras, Marion Bartoli, Lindsay Davenport, Daniela Hantuchová, Mary Pierce, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams.

Nike is also the official kit sponsor for the Indian cricket team for 5 years, from 2006 till end of 2010. Nike beat Adidas and Puma by bidding highest (US$43 Million total).

Nike also sponsors some of the leading clubs in world football, such as the US National Team, Manchester United, Arsenal, FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Shakhtar, Porto, Steaua, Red Star, Club América, Aston Villa, Celtic and PSV Eindhoven. Nike will also sponsor Dundee United from summer 2009.

Nike sponsors several of the world's top golf players, including Tiger Woods, Trevor Immelman and Paul Casey.

Nike also sponsors various minor events including Hoop It Up (high school basketball) and The Golden West Invitational (high school track and field). Nike uses web sites as a promotional tool to cover these events. Nike also has several websites for individual sports, including nikebasketball.com, nikefootball.com, and nikerunning.com