Philip Hampson Knight
“Just Do It”
Submitted on: Tuesday Oct 2 2011
Submitted by: Kakoose Guna
Industry:
The sports apparel and equipment industry is growing rapidly and is estimated to be worth over $126 billion by the year 2015 according to Global Industry Analysts. This industry has a growing market because people are becoming more health conscious. Thus, Sports apparel and equipment are in demand, which leads to a very highly competitive market. Demand refers to how much of a product or service is desired by consumers (Wise, 2012). Nowadays, even well established brands are forced to tweak and modify their products in order to maintain their market share. More and more consumers are demanding more versatile products with a wide range of functionality. Changing fashion trends, tough competition and more price-conscious shoppers are just a few of the many challenges faced by businesses in this industry.
Competitors and Market trend:
As mentioned earlier, the global sportswear market is considered to be highly competitive. The behemoths of the sports apparel and equipment industry are; Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Puma. Adidas emerged in the industry before Nike and now the Adidas Group owns both Reebok and Adidas. Adidas is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and second largest in the world (“Adidas Group History”). On the other hand, Puma is well known for its soccer shoes and formula one and NASCAR clothing. Presently, they distribute products in more than 120 countries (“PUMAs new archive 2007”). Both Adidas Group and Puma originated in Germany. Product innovation remains a focal point in gaining market share in this industry and to accomplish this, these companies are making technological advancements in order to keep up with changing trends in fitness. Product innovation is the creation and introduction of a good or service that is either new or improved on previous goods or services (Wise,