Of the 25 brands supplying kit to clubs in the major European football leagues during the 2014/15 playing season, Nike has become the market leader, according to Repucom and PR Marketing's “European Football Kit Supplier Report 2014.” However, this summer Adidas announced a blockbuster 10-year, £750 million (€939.14m-$1,234.54m) deal with Manchester United and the brand will also take the Italian champions of Juventus from Nike in 2015-16. The German brand will therefore re-take its crown soon. The two sportswear giants are ferociously vying for the top spot and continue to be way in front of their rivals. Repucom and PR Marketing's report, which has reached its third edition, looks at the growth of the kit-supplier industry based on teams of the top five European leagues. In addition to the English Premier League, the 2014 report is based on data for the German Bundesliga, the French Ligue 1, the Italian Serie A and the Spanish Liga.
The clubs of the five major European leagues are shared among 25 brands, but Nike supplies 26.5 percent of them, whereas Adidas represents 18.4 percent of this market. Nike has 26 teams under contract, five more than in the 2013/14 season. Adidas supplies 18, four less. However, Adidas leads in the lucrative Barclays' Premier League, where it has deals with five clubs compared to Nike's three. The third-biggest player,Puma, supplies nine clubs in Europe's top five leagues.
The English Premier League remained the most prolific and most marketable sports property among the European top five leagues in 2013/14, with more than five million jerseys sold and revenues from kit-supplier deals of €163 million. Spain's Liga is second with 3.1 million shirts, followed by the Bundesliga, the Ligue 1 and Serie A. The combined shirt sales of all top five leagues in the 2013/14 season reached a new record of nearly 13 million pieces. Likewise, new kit supplier deals signed ahead of 2013/14 accounted for the highest amount of total income from kit supplier sponsorships in football history, says the report.
In discussing the latest findings, the authors of the report concluded that, while Nike looks to maximize the number of teams it supplies, Adidas' position in the market is one of “quality.” Adidas is official partner of the Fifa World Cup, as well as Germany, namely the national team that won the World Cup this year, and the UEFA Champions League.
The report also contains detailed information on Europe's top 20 teams by revenue during the 2012/13 season and the 2013/14 UEFA Champions League teams in terms of sponsorship, expenditure, shirt sales and market shares.
