With a world title won in 2018 and perhaps a second in a row this Sunday, the French soccer team and its mega-contract of more than 50 million euros a year have become the jewel of the American equipment supplier Nike in international soccer.
Adidas against Nike, the other World Cup final
Announced in 2016, covering the period 2018-2026, this partnership was the highest in the world for a national team, roughly on par with the one linking – but much less successfully – Adidas with Germany in the same period.
Loyal to the brand of the three stripes for 60 years, Germany had been eliminated in the first round four years ago in Russia and experienced the same misfortune this year in Qatar, finishing third in their group behind Japan and Spain.
However, Adidas will be represented in the final, but by Argentina and Lionel Messi (under a personal contract with the brand with the three stripes), and to the sports rivalry a financial rivalry between the two giants will be added: an increase of 30% is estimated On sales. of soccer jerseys in a World Cup year, but a world title would still boost this figure.
a record deal
The stakes are high for Nike, which only entered the kit-supplier circle at the 1998 World Cup and is aiming to add a third world trophy to its list after Brazil in 2002 and France four years ago, while Adidas already has six. .
Nike had also put the package in to become an official supplier to the Habs. The contract signed in 2008 and which came into force in 2011 amounted at the time to 42.6 million euros per year, an already record amount and more than four times higher than what the FFF had received until then.’Adidas.
It was renegotiated by President Noël Le Graët to bring it to just over 50 million euros a year. It is not the economic part that has increased, but the provision of equipment (around 12 million euros per season) for the French men’s team and the other 17 national teams (female, sub-23, Espoirs, etc.) but also amateur clubs for the Coupe de France, which now benefit from preferential rates to equip themselves with the American brand.
Since this first “big hit”, Nike has taken the lion’s share as it was the best represented brand at the start of the World Cup in Qatar, with 13 nations out of 32 under contract. As much as Adidas (seven) and Puma (six) together.
“Iconic Partnership”
“We have been a proud sponsor of the FFF since 2011 and it continues to be one of our most iconic associations,” Nike said in a statement sent to AFP.
“We wish them good luck for the final this weekend,” added the company, which, however, was much less vocal about the sales figures for shirts achieved or expected, nor about the possible anticipation of the manufacture of a three-way shirt. stars, in the event of victory.
On the Adidas side, it is specified that the Argentina shirts “are almost sold out” in several markets even before the final on Sunday, according to a spokesperson interviewed by AFP. And, unsurprisingly, the flocked number 10 shirt, Lionel Messi’s, “is especially popular,” he adds, noting that its flocking at the German logistics center in Rieste in Lower Saxony is going at full speed.
How long for a three star jersey?
But with two or three stars? At this point, in 2018, the coronation of the Blues had caused a delay at Nike in the ignition in supplying the version with the second star.
A few tens of thousands of shirts had been sold in the first weeks after the final victory against Croatia. But, later, the “replica” versions, cheaper (80 euros) than the “match” versions (130 euros), had arrived in drops, and only as of autumn, due to manufacturing and shipping from Thailand.
Again, Nike is unlikely to mass-produce items that it may never be able to sell if the Blues lose and, initially at least, three-star jerseys are likely to be reserved for the “happy” few.
Sign of fever before the precedent of 2018? The comma brand did, however, place an ad online on Friday for the sale of a “three-star” Blues jersey, before withdrawing it so soon, according to multiple outlets.
Source: BFM TV
