Nike and Adidas have long been at the forefront of the sporting goods industry.


Adidas has a war-torn and battle-scarred history. It is a multinational Corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany and is the largest sportswear manufacturer across all of Europe. The brand was first registered on August 18th, 1949 by founder Adolf Dassler. After a nasty feud between Dassler and his older brother Rudolf, the first true shoe rivalry began.



Rudolf formed Puma and became the direct rival of the Adidas brand. After surviving the hells of WW2 (which played a large part in the nasty split between the siblings), the two brothers began to promote their businesses in a big way.


Nike on the other end originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) and was founded by Phil Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman in January 1964. In its first year of business, BRS sold 1,300 pairs of Japanese running shoes that grossed around $8,000.




By 1965, the company made about $20,000. It was a start and the company wasn’t going to slow down anytime soon. The iconic “Swoosh” was first used on Nike shoes on June 18th, 1971.
According to Forbes, Nike and Adidas are two of the largest footwear companies in the world. Effective marketing strategies and innovative products have helped these companies outperform the broader apparel industry over the last couple of years.

Trefis captures trends in key operating metrics for Nike Vs Adidas in an interactive dashboard, highlighting how Adidas has been able to close the gap on the market leader over recent years through an increased marketing spend. Additionally, you can find more Trefis Textiles, Apparel and Luxury Good Industry Data here.

Nike has added roughly $6.7 billion to total revenue since 2015, increasing at an average annual rate of 6.5%. On the other hand, Adidas has been able to add roughly $7 billion to total revenues, growing at an average annual rate of 11.3%.


However, Nike is notably bigger than second-placed Adidas. Nike’s total revenue in 2018 stood at $39 billion – almost 50% more than Adidas’ $26 billion.



Adidas’ growth has been led by its footwear segment which has continued to achieve double-digit growth driven by sales increases in sports-inspired and sport-performance products.

There is a yoruba saying that literary says "We can't simply compare sleep with death"... Adidas is sleep, Nike is Death!

Summary: Nike is superior in my opinion

Addidas is mainly patronized by Football clubs while Nike dominate the footwear industry and is also patronised by Tennis and Golf Players. So definitely Nike has the edge.