2010 World Cup: Footw(e)ar

Have you been watching what colour boots the players have been wearing at the 2010 FIFA World Cup? Have you seen the brand of their boots? If not do try it the next time you are watching a match from South Africa or footage from the tournament. Then a footwear war is on in South Africa, a massive marketing campaign between the biggest sporting brands in the world - Nike vs Adidas and to some extent Puma.


Footwear war

The days of black football boots are long gone and nowadays you will see most players in boots in all possible colours which often does not match with the rest of their kit. The players ensure their hair is set, often with gel but their boots don't match the rest. Not a good fashion statement. I find that terrible, but who am I to say so...

The trend has been over the last few years that boots would be individual like football players themselves. But at this World Cup the trend has been turned upside down by one company. If you have noticed the boots of the players, you will most likely have seen that many players are wearing the same set of boots in a colour combination of violet and orange. This is the latest football boot from Nike and they seem to have won the footwear war so far as numerous players in every team seem to wearing this pair of boots, in some smaller teams nearly all player are doing so. Adidas has their own boots which are available in black/yellow and white/black, but they are not seen too often plus such a colour combination doesn't remain in the minds of potential consumers.

It seems the number one sports brand Nike has beaten their traditional rivals from Germany. While Adidas is the official FIFA partner, so the tournament is played in a Adidas ball and Adidas branding is seen around the stadium, the American sports giants are using the boots rather then the jersey's to get their promotion going. Somewhat of a new concept, but it seems to be working...


How the boot business started

For this we have to go back a little in history. At the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland a certain Adi Dassler created studs for football boots with which the German football team would go on to win their first ever World Cup title against the invincible Hungary. It was early days for Adidas, but Nike wasn't around in those days.

This Adolf 'Adi' Dassler was the man who had created Adidas in 1924 under the name of Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) along with his brother Rudolf 'Rudi' Dassler. The brothers drifted away over the years and Rudolf Dassler went on to form his own company called Ruda which was later renamed to Puma, another big global player these day's. And both these global sportswear giants have their headquarters in the small German village town of Herzogenaurach, close to Nuremberg.