Nike's World Cup play: take on Adidas and revitalize the brand

NEW YORK, June 11 : As the World Cup kicks off, Nike and Adidas are competing on and off the field.

Nike needs a win. The soccer tournament, this year held partly on the U.S. company's home turf, comes two years into CEO Elliott Hill's turnaround push. Market share has eroded, the company expects sales to drop 2 per cent to 4 per cent in the current quarter, and shares have fallen more than 30 per cent this year as investors grow impatient with Hill's progress.

There are hopeful signs on the retail pitch. Shoppers entering the Pelé Soccer store in Times Square this week were greeted by a row of mannequins decked out in Nike's U.S., Brazil and France kits.

And Nike's "Rip the Script" World Cup campaign, built around a film featuring soccer icons and celebrities from Kylian Mbappé to Kim Kardashian, was plastered on the window display at Champs Sports in midtown Manhattan. The Foot Locker subsidiary's prominent placement of Nike jerseys signals the company's progress in rebuilding relationships with retailers, many of which had been severed as part of former CEO John Donahoe's pivot to a direct-to-consumer model.

"Football allows us to reach so many different people," Camilo Andrade, said Nike's vice president of global football. When it comes to working with wholesale retailers, the strategy "has been first and foremost to make sure that we restore those relationships," Andrade added.

On top of two new Mercurial soccer cleats launched this month, the sportswear giant is outfitting 12 national teams, partnering with local street-wear designers and refreshing soccer merchandise at more than 5,000 Nike and wholesale stores globally.

But competition is fierce. Adidas, an official World Cup sponsor and a brand long associated with