Adidas vs. Nike for Women - Webflow

Introduction | Global vs. Local Performance | Assortment Overview | Top Performing Categories |

Pricing Overview | Key Product Launches | Conclusion

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J A N U A R Y – D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 • A C T I V E W E A R

Adidas vs. Nike for Women

Written by Ashley Looi, Business Intelligence Analyst

2019 has been a spotlight year for women in sports withtrailblazers like Simone Biles’ record breaking weekend at the 2019U.S. Gymnastics Championship and Sarah Thomas becoming thefirst person to swim the Channel four times non-stop.

Due to emerging female empowerment movements like #MeTooand #TimesUp, the “shrink it and pink it” approach applied byathletic brands are no longer good enough. Women have beenturning to female-centric brands like Lululemon and Athleta.

Declaring 2019 as its ‘Year of Women’, Nike released ‘DreamCrazier’ campaign fronted by Serena Williams, showcasingwomen’s exceptional athletic performance. The brand alsosponsored the US Women’s World Cup that rose to victory in July.

Adidas released a campaign entitled ‘Her Time is Now’, celebratingfemale empowerment in collaboration with Pharrell Williams.Adidas also landed a collaboration with Beyoncé to relaunch herIvy Park collection in January 2020.

In this report, we compared the performance of Nike and Adidasfor women by analysing four markets, namely UK and US in thewest alongside Malaysia and Singapore (MY and SG) in theSoutheast Asian region. More than 41,000 data points weretracked from January to December 2019.

2Instagram @nike

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

All data used in this report comes from products retailingonline as tracked by Omnilytics, unless otherwise mentioned.

Introduction

C H A R T 1: BR A ND P E R FO R M A NC E I N U K A ND U S

3

Nike and Adidas are giants in the sportswear industry but how welldo they fare against each other in womenswear?

Global PerformanceNike was ahead of Adidas on total sell-out rate despite having lessSKUs and discounting.

MY and SG PerformanceBoth brands were tied for total sell-out rate at 81% but Nike drovemore than 3 times higher sell-out rate at full price driven by highnew-in rate at 75%, despite its higher median price than Adidas.

Adidas while offering a wide assortment with 4,250 more SKUsthan Nike, 85% of total assortment was discounted products.

Nike demonstrated strong brand loyalty in both global and thelocal regions, with newness at the right price driving success.

Positioning Performance

Brands Assortment SKUs Count

Median Price (USD) New-In Rate

% of Discounted

Products

Sell-Out Rate

Sell-Out Rate at Full Price

Nike 12,384 70 63% 58% 88% 50%

Adidas 15,604 65 56% 73% 83% 49%

C H A R T 2: BR A ND P E R FO R M A NC E I N M Y A ND S G

Positioning Performance

Brands Assortment SKUs Count

Median Price (USD) New-In Rate

% of Discounted

Products

Sell-Out Rate

Sell-Out Rate at Full Price

Nike 4,550 97 75% 21% 81% 78%

Adidas 9,300 47 57% 85% 81% 22%

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

Global vs. Local Performance

4

Nike and Adidas are mostly known for their footwear, but therewere other sales drivers in the assortment.

Top 3 Categories for Nike (Total 4 Markets)1. Shoes2. Top & T-Shirts3. Pants & Leggings

Top 3 Categories for Adidas (UK and US)1. Shoes2. Top & T-Shirts3. Outerwear

Top 3 Categories for Adidas (MY and SG)1. Shoes2. Top & T-Shirts3. Accessories

Accessories made it to the top 3 categories for Adidas in MY andSG markets, overtaking Pants & Leggings and Outerwear. Most ofthe contribution to Accessories sell-out came from backpacks,socks and headwear.

C H A R T 3: T O P C A T E G O R I E S BY S E L L - O U T C O U NT

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000

Pants & Leggings

Tops & T-Shirts

Shoes

Nike

MY/SG

US/UK

0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500

Accessories

Outerwear

Tops & T-Shirts

Shoes

Adidas

MY/SG

US/UK

Assortment Overview

The categories with the highest sell-out for Nike in MY and SG wereShoes, Tops & T-Shirts and Pants & Leggings whereas Adidas’were Shoes, Tops & T-Shirts and Accessories.

ShoesShoes comprised of 63% of Nike’s total assortment but only 24% ofAdidas’. Sneakers were extremely popular for both brands, amajority of which came in core coloured uppers with just a splash ofcolour.

Tops & T-Shirts14% of Nike’s assortment was made up of Tops & T-Shirts whereasthe category made up 33% of Adidas’ assortment.

The most important function of the category is to wick sweat fromthe athlete’s body. Both brands had derived their own technologyfor performance fabric, Primeknit for Adidas and Dri-Fit for Nike.More than 75% of tops in both brands came in core colours - black,white, blue and grey. The popular fashion colours in the categorywere red, pink and purple for both brands.

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

Top Performing Categories

Nike DaybreakUSD 116.49

Nike Air Max CamdenUSD 50.00

Adidas Run Primeknit Tank TopUSD 72.79

Nike ACG TopUSD 65.61

Adidas Graphic Cycling JerseyUSD 155.34

Adidas Super Sleek ShoesUSD 70.00

Pants & LeggingsTights & Leggings made up most of Nike’s Pants & Leggingscategory. These products featured punchy colours and bold prints.Similar to the Tops & T-Shirts category, the performance fabricused is Dri-Fit and is mostly seen in leggings.

AccessoriesThe category mainly consisted of socks, hats and bags which tookup 67% contribution of accessories.

Adidas’ accessories had more minimalistic designs and focused oncore colours that donned the brand’s signature trefoil logo.

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

Top Performing Categories (cont’d)

Nike Epic LuxUSD 135.92

Nike Power TightsUSD 78.40

Nike Sportswear Tech FleeceUSD 110.00

Adidas 3D Mini BackpackUSD 33.42

Adidas Trefoil Ankle Socks 3 PairsUSD 14.75

Adidas Trefoil Baseball CapUSD 19.66

7

Nike had a higher median price than Adidas in MY and SGmarkets. A closer look at the price bands of the top 3 categoriesrevealed interesting insights.

Nike priced higher in both the Tops & T-Shirts and Pants &Leggings categories respectively. However, Adidas set higherprices on Shoes than Nike to reveal the brand’s focus on drivingpremium footwear.

C H A R T 4: P R I C E BA ND S BY T O P P E R FO R M I NG C A T E G O R Y S E LL -O U T R A T E

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

> USD 300

USD 200–300

USD 100–200

USD 0–100

Shoes

Adidas

Nike

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

> USD 75

USD 50–75

USD 25–50

USD 0–25

Tops & T-Shirts

Adidas

Nike

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

> USD 150

USD 100–150

USD 50–100

USD 0–50

Pants & Leggings

Adidas

Nike

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

Pricing Overview

8

Discounting StrategyThroughout 2019, Nike and Adidas both favoured the 20-29%discount band in MY and SG markets. Nike’s discounting strategywas focused on the range of 10-39% whereas Adidas concentratedat discounts higher than 20% and had a wider spread up to 89%.Most of the discounts offered for both brands were for Shoes andTops & T-Shirts.

Black Friday DealsBoth Nike and Adidas standardised Black Friday discountmechanics across all 4 markets.

Nike’s promotion was ‘Buy 2 get 40% off” on its Black FridayCollection with the promo code ‘BFCM40’. The brand also offeredan additional 25% off on sale items when shoppers used the promocode ‘SEASONMVP” upon checkout.

The Adidas Black Friday sale offered 30-50% discount on selectedsneakers, clothing and accessories. The sale included popularshoes like the Adidas Ultraboost 2019 and Adidas Stan Smith.

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

A D I D A S :BL A C K FR I D A Y S A L E

NI K E :BL A C K FR I D A Y P R O M O

Pricing Overview (cont’d) V I S U A L M E R C H A ND I S I NG [ 1 ] FO R BL A C K FR I D A Y

Note: [1] Subscribe to Omnilytics dashboard to access the module.

Although both brands have iconic products that distinguish onefrom the other, Nike leans towards performance shoes whileAdidas towards more lifestyle-inspired. The iconic products are allmade available in MY and SG, however the variety is limited as notall colourways are offered.

Among Nike’s most notable products are Nike Air Force 1, Nike AirMax and Nike Air Jordan, whereas Adidas’ distinguished productscomprised of Adidas Superstar, Adidas NMD and AdidasUltraboost.

The Air Max range had three times as many SKUs as the other Nikeiconic products because there are multiple designs within the AirMax range like the Nike Air Max 270, Nike Air Max 97 and Nike AirMax 95 to name a few.

Adidas’ iconic products drove higher sell-out than Nike’s, despitebeing tied on total sell-out rate at brand level in MY and SG. Evenat nearly double of Nike’s total SKU count, Adidas opted for asmaller assortment when it came to its iconic product lines tomaintain exclusivity.

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

C H A R T 5: S E LL -O U T R A T E O F I C O NI C P R O D U C T S A G A I NS T S K U C O U NT

Iconic Products

70%

75%

80%

85%

90%

95%

100%

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Air Force 1 Air Max Air Jordan Superstar NMD Ultraboost

Sell-

Ou

t R

ate

SKU

Co

un

t

Number ofSKUs

Sell-Out Rate

Nike Kyrie 5 ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’USD 148.87

Nike Classic Kyrie ‘Spongebob’USD 45.00

Both brands identified and took leverage of trending subcultures toincorporate into their designs for capsule collections. A keydifference between the two would be the target demographic.Spongebob Squarepants and Stranger Things appealed to ayounger audience. On the other hand, Game of Thrones and StarsWars attracted mature audiences due to the mature themes of theformer and long standing fanbase of the latter.

Another difference between Nike and Adidas were the featuredproducts in the collaborations. Nike’s collections extended acrossfootwear, accessories and apparel, whereas Adidas focused on itsiconic footwear in collaborative efforts.

MY and SG had a higher number of SKUs for the Nike x StrangerThings because the UK was only limited to apparel.

Assortment SKU Count by Market

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

Nike x Stranger ThingsUSD 62.97

Subculture-Led Products

Collection UK and US MY and SG

Nike x SpongebobSquarepants

7 4

Nike x Stranger Things 32 50

Adidas x Game of Thrones 6 6

Adidas x Star Wars 8 13

Adidas x Game of Thrones ShoesUSD 90.00

Adidas Nite Jogger Star Wars ShoesUSD 130.00

Adidas NUMD_R1 Star Wars ShoesUSD 130.00

Adidas Pharrell Williams Hu NMD ShoesUSD 233.04

Adidas by Stella McCartney Court DressUSD 98.30

Adidas Pharrell Williams Boyfriend TeeUSD 45.00

Nike x Off-WhiteUSD 109.84

Nike x AmbushUSD 144.75

Nike x MadeMeUSD 82.33

Both Nike and Adidas engaged in cross-collaborations with highprofile brands and celebrities. Nike went a step ahead by drawingfocus to the Women’s World Cup by engaging prominent femaledesigners to curate a lifestyle collection surrounding the event.

NikeNike engaged with Off-White to curate a Nike x Off-Whitecollection showcases more on apparel rather than footwear. Nikealso secured four female designers Yoon Ahn, Christelle Kocher,Erin Magee and Marine Serre for its football inspired lifestylecollection.

AdidasAdidas and Pharrell Williams came together to launch a campaigntitled “Now is Her Time” to empower women through the power ofrepresentation and bold choices. Adidas also has a longstandingcollaboration with Stella McCartney on female-centric collections.

Assortment SKU Count by Market

Collections UK and US MY and SG

Nike x Off-White 10 15

Nike World Cup Lifestyle Collection

29 22

Adidas x Pharrell Williams 96 53

Adidas x Stella McCartney 743 106

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

Collaborations

Nike US 2019 Stadium HomeUSD 103.54

Nike Canada 2019 Stadium HomeUSD 71.97

Australia 2019 Stadium HomeUSD 66.97

Nike Indy BraUSD 34.90

Nike Yoga TightsUSD 65.00

Nike Yoga TopUSD 60.00

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

Inclusivity

Collection UK and US MY and SG

Nike Stadium Tees 36 15

Nike Yoga Collection 289 97

Nike Stadium TeesNike sponsored 14 out of the 24 teams that participated in theWomen’s World Cup, three of which entered the finals. The USteam eventually won the title, which led to a big win for Nike as itsUSA Women’s World Cup shirt became its bestselling jersey of alltime, even outperforming the men’s jersey.

The stadium tees that were offered in MY and SG, while small,comprised of prominent teams of USA, England, France andAustralia.

Nike Yoga CollectionNike debuted its new yoga collection with the use of mannequinsmimicking yoga poses. The Nike Yoga Collection is also designedfor other studio workouts like dance and barre. The range isavailable in plus sizes but not extended to MY and SG markets.

The collection was a success with an 88% sell-out rate. The yogacollection was made available in MY and SG with a narroweroffering but failed to perform as well as UK and US market with asell-out rate of 39%.

Assortment SKU Count by Market

Nike Pro HijabUSD 32.31

Nike Pro HijabUSD 32.31

Nike Pro HijabUSD 32.31

Nike Sportswear TopUSD 70.00

Nike Victory Sports BraUSD 34.90

Nike Air DressUSD 70.00

Nike Pro HijabNike introduced the Pro Hijab to help Muslim women in sportsperform better. The designers got several athletes to test the initialprototype of the Nike Pro Hijab in their respective sports andgathered their feedback to cater to the female athletes’ needs.

The results of Nike efforts can be seen where the Nike Pro Hijabsold out in MY and SG, countries with a large population of Muslimwomen. However, the assortment offered was smaller despite thehigh Muslim concentration in MY and SG.

Plus SizeNike brilliantly used plus sized mannequins to bring awareness tothe brand’s plus size range while Adidas worked together withUniversal Standard to come up with plus size offerings.

Nike had a wider plus size range compared to Adidas. The brandshowed sincerity on inclusivity by making its plus size assortmentavailable in MY and SG, albeit a narrow offering. The Adidas xUniversal Standard collection failed to reach MY and SG.

Assortment SKU Count by Market

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

Inclusivity (Cont’d)

Collection UK and US MY and SG

Nike Pro Hijab 7 2

Nike Plus Size 512 13

Adidas x Universal Standard

64 0

Main FindingsNike was Leading at Sell-Out: Adidas had a widerassortment range than Nike at global level and up to 2xmore in the MY and SG region. The brand also had over70% of SKUs on discount. However, these strategies failedto translate to sell-out rates higher than Nike.

Nike was leading in sell-out, by giving what the consumerwants with the right products. Nike continues to focus ondriving women’s sports performance and inclusivityoffering more than influencer marketing as heavilyinvested by Adidas.

Tighter but Credible Localised Assortment: Both brandsoffered limited assortments in MY and SG compared to theUK and US. Having said that, Nike did better in the localmarkets than Adidas, with credible representations of itsmany capsules.

The brand catered to the local demands by introducingNike Pro Hijab and Nike Plus Size collections. Although itslocal plus size collection was much smaller at just 13 SKUs,it showed an understanding that Asians generally havesmaller builds, hence do not require an offering as wide asits global markets. Nike also paid attention to theSoutheast Asian region’s conservative culture by refrainingfrom introducing its pride-inspired BETRUE collection.

Next Steps for BrandsKeep Tab on Subcultures: With increasing demand led bythe consumers, brands should leverage on subcultures tospot emerging trends.

Omnilytics dashboard monitors trends across differentmarkets and brands with ease. With keyword searchfunction, retailers can assess the brands that stocked“Stranger Things” along with trade performance.

Brand Positioning: For decades, Nike has been empoweringwomen in sports. The brand heightened this act byannouncing 2019 as “Year of Women” with MY and SGwell-represented of women exclusive capsules, mostnotably for Pro-Hijab and plus size collections. Its hypedBETRUE pride collection was not extended to theSoutheast Asia region, demonstrating an understanding ofthe region’s conservative cultures.

Adidas knew well to play in a different space than Nike,and positioned itself at the intersection of sports and streetstyles for women with its “Now is Her Time” campaign.

While it is important for every retailer to have accurateinformation about market demands, it is also aboutmapping the findings against its brand positioning toderive informed decisions and strategies that tactfullycapture its target market audience.

Website @adidas

JA NU A R Y – D E C E M BE R 2019

Conclusion

Definition of Key Metrics

Metric Description

Assortment SKUs Count The total count of stock keeping unit (SKU) i.e. the number of styles that a brand offers. In the report context, it is the total product count within a data set.

Median Price The price of the product at the midpoint of the data set.

New-In The products that are newly added to the retail website within the timeframe selected.

New-In Rate The number of new products launched by a brand within the timeframe selected. It is calculated by dividing the new-in count over the total product count within a data set.

Sell-Out A product registers a sell-out event when it is indicated as out-of-stock or no longer published on the website.

Sell-Out Rate Calculated by dividing the number of out-of-stock product count over the total product count within a data set.

Sell-Out Rate at Full Price Signals consumers’ willingness to pay at full price. It is calculated by dividing the number of out-of-stock product count at full price over the total number of out-of-stock product count.

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