The Four Major Sports Brands In 2016, The Market Competition Of Big Sports Apparel Is White Hot.

As the sports apparel market continues to slump and the global retail industry is in a state of weakness, the market performance of Nike, Adidas, Puma, Under Armour and other big players has been stared even more tightly. Even if the figures appear to be good, they may not be able to satisfy the discerning analysts. Therefore, "do not stop" has become everyone's unanimous voice.

Looking back in 2016, these world sporting goods giants are still unhappy. For example, in the second half of 2016, Nike shares fell 11%, Under Armour shares fell 14%, Adidas shares rose 25%, and Puma shares rose 20%. Whether the product can be continuously innovating, and whether the market wind is grasped enough or not, is the reason for their continuous progress and determines their success or failure in the competition.

Based on public information, the four international sports brands of Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and Puma in 2016 were compared and analyzed, trying to show their current development and competition situation.

　　 Nike A weary beast must move on.

In March 2016 -5 (the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016), Nike's operating income was $8 billion 240 million, an increase of 6% over the same period last year, and net profit of 846 million US dollars, down 2% over the same period last year. As the growth rate of 6% was slightly lower than that of analysts, 9% of Nike was forecast, and the share price of Nike fell more than 15% after the earnings announcement.

In June 2016 -8 (the first quarter of fiscal year 2017), Nike's operating income was $9 billion 60 million, an increase of 8% over the same period last year, excluding the growth rate of exchange rate factor 10%, and net profit of 1 billion 250 million US dollars, an increase of 6% over the same period last year. Despite the growth in both revenue and net profit in the quarter, orders fell.

In September 2016 -11 (the second quarter of fiscal year 2017), Nike's revenue reached US $8 billion 200 million, up 6 over the previous year, exceeding the previous US $8 billion 90 million expected by Wall Street. Net profit rose 7% to $842 million last year, after which the share price rose 1.85% to 51.79 dollars per share, with a market value of about 86 billion 134 million dollars.

It can be seen that in 2016, although Nike experienced a certain degree of decline in profits and share prices, and was once weakened by analysts, it ended with a more gratifying achievement in the end. In terms of market value, Nike still occupies a dominant position in the global campaign for brand wars, and the challenge from rival Adidas and Under Armour is intensifying.

Reporters learned that Nike's business development in 2016 has two major characteristics:

First, Asia is still the most obvious growth market. In the first quarter of November 30, 2016, sales in Nike Greater China rose 12% to $160 million compared with the same period last year. If the effect of currency change was eliminated, the increase was as high as 17%. The growth in Japan was the strongest, up 16% to 238 million dollars over the same period.

Two, basketball business is still the core of Nike. The cooperation between Under Armour and NBA star Stephen Curry has given Nike a lot of pressure and has had a significant impact on its overall performance. However, a series of new strategic layout, including product design and price reduction, will promote the recovery of Nike basketball business. It is expected that the category will return to growth in the second half of 2017 fiscal year.

The challenges facing Nike now lie ahead. For example, sporting goods with fashionable labels are becoming more and more popular nowadays, and the boundaries between footwear and clothing industry are becoming more and more blurred. But compared with other competitors, Nike's sports attribute is more pure, and it is inevitable that products will not be innovating. In addition, the major sports brands are embracing the Chinese market. In addition to Adidas, Under Armour and Lululemo, young and fast fashion fitness brands have begun to accelerate their pace. If Nike can not enhance their performance from 2C channels under the online and offline channels, and speed up the supply chain in order to speed up product sales and operation cycle, the final embarrassing situation is not hard to imagine.

After the announcement of the latest quarterly earnings report, Nike CEO CEO (Mark Parker) admitted for the first time that it had felt the pressure from its competitors and said it would continue. However, he remained confident of Nike's performance in fiscal year 2017, and reiterated that the group's revenue target would increase to $50 billion by 2020.

"Cowards never leave, but the weak die on the way. We only have to move on." Phil Nate, founder of Nike, repeatedly mentioned in his autobiography "shoe and dog" may continue to guide the way ahead of this enterprise.

　　 Adidas After several years of stragglers, we finally found the way to counter attack.

In the first quarter of 2016 (1-3 months of 2016), Adidas net sales increased 16.8% to 4 billion 769 million euros (about 5 billion 290 million US dollars), hitting a new high in group quarter sales. Net profit surged 38% to 350 million euros (about 386 million 100 thousand US dollars); operating profit increased 35% to 490 million euros (about 540 million 500 thousand dollars). In the global market, in addition to the decline in sales in Russia and Latin America, Western Europe, North America, Greater China and Japan recorded a strong increase of more than 20%.

In the first quarter of 2016 (2016 4-6), Adidas performance continued strong momentum in the first quarter, global sales increased by 21%, total revenue grew 13% to 4 billion 400 million euros, profit growth nearly doubled to 290 million euros, and operating profit increased 77% to 410 million euros. Its growth in the US and greater China markets shocked the industry, with us turnover surging by 22.6% and sales in the Greater China region as high as 30.1%. Driven by performance, the stock price of Adidas has risen more than 100% in the past year.

In the third quarter of 2016 (2016 7-9), the growth of Adidas sales slowed down, and the three largest markets in Europe, the United States and China slowed down. In the quarter, its net sales rose 13.8% to 5 billion 413 million euros compared with the same period last year, operating profit grew 11.5% to 563 million euros, and net profit increased 15% to 387 million euros.

Adidas should be the winner of several global sporting goods giants in 2016. With the rapid growth in the past few quarters in the United States, it has already surpassed Under Armour, which is slowing down in local growth, has become the second largest sports brand in the United States, and is also actively eroding the market share of Nike. However, the market is still uneasy about Adidas's negative impact on the exchange rate in the second half of this year and the strengthening of its gross margin, because the third quarter of 2016 is the first time that Adidas has failed to outperform market expectations for a long time. At the same time, Adidas's brand Reebok is also facing a difficult problem of restructuring.

It is not hard to imagine that Kasper Rorsted, the chief executive of the group in October 2016, is a difficult task. He said after the latest quarterly earnings report, it will ensure that the group will continue to grow in the position of growth oriented enterprises and maintain sustained sales and profit growth in the future. But he also pointed out that it is not expected that sales and profit growth in 2016 will also be maintained in 2017.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that, compared to the market for Nike "product lack of innovation", "not fashionable" evaluation, Adidas seems to wait for new opportunities. It is clearly another way out, for example, by launching a joint venture with designers, and going farther and farther on the high-end trend line. NMD, Yeezy, Stan Smith white shoes... Adidas has to rely on Gao Yan to recover the rhythm of market loss.

No wonder many people comment on it today: "the lagging Adidas is going to run away on the counter attack road. It's time to recognize this old friend again."

　　 Under Armour The myth of growth has ended, but technological innovation can not stop.

In the first quarter of 2016 (1-3 months of 2016), Under Armour business income increased 30% to 1 billion 50 million US dollars compared with the same period last year, net profit increased 63.5% to 192 million US dollars, and net sales rose 63% to 19 million US dollars. Among them, footwear revenue grew 64% to 264 million U.S. dollars over the same period, mainly due to the joint basketball product line of NBA star Stephan Curry, and clothing revenue grew 20% to 667 million US dollars over the same period. Over the past three months, the company's shares rose 27%.

In the second quarter of 2016 (2016 4-6), Under Armour revenue grew 27.7% to 1 billion US dollars, and net profit fell 57% to 6 million 344 thousand US dollars. Among them, the sales of footwear products increased by 58% over the same period last year, but they began to slow down compared with the 64.2% increase in the first quarter of 2015 and the fourth quarter of 2016. The 18.9% increase in clothing sales was the lowest in nearly seven years.

In the third quarter of 2016 (2016 7-9), Under Armour revenue grew 22.2% to 1 billion 470 million US dollars, and net profit increased 27.6% to 128 million US dollars over the same period. Although its revenue growth has reached more than 20% in twenty-sixth consecutive quarters, the increase has been significantly slower than the 27.7% in the second quarter, 30.2% in the first quarter and 28.5% in the 2015 fiscal year, and the lowest growth rate since 2010.

Moreover, it expects the 2016 most important fourth quarter (holiday season) revenue growth is only 20%, less than the market has already lowered expectations of 22.2%. What is more, Under Armour warned that the growth rate of the group in the next two years may not be up to standard, which deepened investors' fear of its failure to continue the growth myth. After the issuance of the earnings report, its share price fell more than 14%.

In response, foreign media commented that the development of Under Armour suffered a "bottleneck period". When competitors began to aim at the professional fitness market, their advantages in product innovation were gradually decreasing. Therefore, the diversification of product structure has become its primary task at present.

In addition, the billion power network understands that for the Under Armour, the Chinese market still has potential and is also the key direction in the future. Its goal is to develop China into the second largest self market. At the same time, the company is also working hard in the electricity business, and has extended the online sales business to emerging markets such as Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Chile.

Of course, Under Armour is not unaware of the problem. It is well aware that sports brands have made great breakthroughs in the field of traditional sportswear. It is difficult for them to stand out and must have the frontiers of consumer market insight and industry trend forecasting. As a result, smarter and more technological children become the way to attract their eyes. For example, recently, it displayed intelligent sports shoes on CES, and launched its first "sleep recovery pajamas", which also helped to update the mobile phone App.

Obviously, Under Armour has posted a new label for smart wearable technology vendors. This is also consistent with the company's founder Kevin Plank once said, "the two direction of the company is smart sports apparel for high-end users, as well as fitness information and data platform for ordinary consumers".

But even in this new field, it faces challenges from old rivals Adidas and Nike. If we can get ahead in this race, we can look forward to its performance in 2017.

　　 Puma It's recovering, but it's far from winning.

In 2016, Puma relied on a pair of exploding shoes (in the FootwearNews of the tide shoes magazine), Puma's Creeper replaced Adidas's YeezyBoost750 as the 2016's "shoes of the year" and became a topic of public concern and revenue improved.

In the first quarter of 2016 (1-3 months of 2016), Puma operating profit increased by 10.1% over the same period last year, while net profit rose 4% to 25 million 800 thousand euros, becoming one of the most eye-catching brands of Kai Yun group. In its sales growth of 7.8% to 851 million 900 thousand euros over the same period, China's regional performance was strong, with an increase of 11.2%. The category of women's shoes has grown strongly under the impetus of American pop star Rihanna, which has been growing for seventh consecutive quarters.

In the second quarter of 2016 (2016 4-6), Puma sales rose 7% to 830 million euros, pre tax earnings rose 75% to 12 million euros, net profit of 1 million 600 thousand euros, compared with the same period in 2015 the loss of 3 million 300 thousand euros also achieved great growth.

In the third quarter of 2016 (7-9 months of 2016), Puma net profit increased 98% to 39 million 500 thousand euros (about 44 million 100 thousand US dollars), almost two times the same period in 2015. Total sales rose 8.3% to 990 million 200 thousand euros (about 1 billion 110 million U.S. dollars), of which EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa three place) and the growth of the Americas region were the main driving force; operating profit grew by 46.7% to Euro euro (about US dollars) and gross margin remained at the same time.

Obviously, Puma is recovering from a few years ago. What is the reason for its performance to begin to warm up?

Based on public information, the reporters are summarized as follows:

1. Rihanna, the most influential fashion icon, has brought different fireworks to Puma. Puma's bursting product Creeper is hosted by Rihanna, and Rihanna became the design director and brand spokesperson of women's clothing at the crisis of Puma. In February 2016, it took the Fenty X Puma by Rihanna series to New York and Paris fashion week, and let Puma make a bold breakthrough. Even a single product such as Hoodie and skirt is no longer a traditional sport equipment.

Two, try to use the fashion and entertainment cross-border marketing to impress young consumers. When the new generation of young people become the main force of consumption, grasping the taste of this part of consumers, making the products cooler, more dazzling and easier to spread, has become the force of Puma. After successfully co operating with Rihanna, the TV stars Kylie Jenner, the famous model CaraDelevingne, the Canadian singer The Weeknd and others were invited to serve as ambassadors or photographers, while Lu Han and Liu Wen were found in China. In addition, Puma also collaborate with well-known designers and fashion brands.

Three, begin to "grab people" in sports arena. Major sporting events and popular sports teams and athletes have always been an important battleground for major sports brands to gain more exposure opportunities. Puma is also trying to gain more attention in this area. For example, in the Brazil Olympic Games, the Jamaica track and field team, which was co operated with Puma, achieved the best results after the US team, which made Puma's Logo more impressive. At the same time, it also signed many young athletes.

Four, social media has become another battleground opened by Puma. In addition to the regular advertising films, Puma put on a short video showing the athletes' training scenes on the short video sharing application Vine, encouraged users to use the small tags of #ForeverFaster on the Twitter, and also adopted the marketing strategy of "Flock To Unlock" (the user pushed the Puma's tweets to a certain number before they could unlock more exclusive advertising films).

No doubt, these "changing tide" attitudes make Puma reclaim influence among young people and get a positive response from consumers in retail sales. But after the tide, Puma still needs to maintain enough competitive advantage in its old sports performance, after all, this is the foundation of sports brand.

Whether it can usher in a real revival or not? But what needs to be clear is that in this fiercely competitive battleground, either run or die.

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