By David Owen
June 18 – Adidas has taken a narrow early lead in the battle of the brands at Brazil 2014. After one round of matches, teams representing the brand of the three stripes, including Mexico, Germany and Argentina, had snared 51.85% of the points available to them.
It is an extremely close-run race though, with Puma second on 50% and Nike bringing up the rear on 43.3%. The five teams supplied by other kit-makers are performing at comparable levels too, with a combined tally of 46.7%.
Indeed, with one game from the second round of matches already played – a goalless draw between hosts Brazil and Mexico – Adidas had dropped back to level pegging with Puma on 50%.
Nike have the consolation of supplying the team that produced the most eye-catching performance of the tournament’s early stages – Holland, with its astonishing five-goal demolition of world champions Spain.
Partly as a consequence of this, Nike teams also scored the most goals during the 16 first round matches with 17, against 14 for Adidas, 12 for Puma and 6 for others.
The three major brands each have 8-10 teams competing in Brazil. Nike has the edge with 10 teams (Australia, Brazil, Croatia, England, France, Greece, Holland, Portugal, South Korea and USA). Adidas has nine (Argentina, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Colombia, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia and Spain). And Puma has eight (Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Italy, Switzerland and Uruguay).
Five further kit manufacturers have one team each.
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