Nike vs. Adidas

How sportwear brands transform us into champions and reveal how male chauvinist we are

In every ages, every countries or every cultures, physical performances have been associated to greatness, entertainement and struggling for life. From the Olympic games of the Oldest Greece where Platon was a participant when he did not philosoph (he was known to have big shoulders and to use it well during fights) to the recent football world cup were every one could follow the performances of his favorite national team.Actually do you know someone or something disliking sport? We can all be reluctant to go jogging or going to the fitness center we paid a fortune. But even the most lazy one of us will admire sportsmen able of great physcicall performance. For example, your neighboor might not play football or running, but every saturday evening he is watching the champions league on TV dressed with his "Lionel Messi" shirt. 

Sportswear brands understood it : people want more than just admiring them. They can not be like their champion. If they can not be like them, they will look like them. It is like the prometheus myth. People stands as equal to gods they ideolize because they have fire like them.

When sportswear brands are sponsoring champions that is because they hope to sell articles with their name, their signature. This is not really the hobby of doing sport which requires those articles.

My neighboor has already 5 pair of running shoes but that is not the problem , he wants the new air Jordan shoes from Nike because he is sure in his mind he will look like the NBA player Micahel Jordan. 

                                                       This       

                                                                     MAKES ME HIM

 

In the case of sponsoring, males (teens to adults) are generally the ones targeted by brands because brands are sponsoring the greatest event of sports and the ones who makes the greatest physical performances, the best results: Men. It can look like sexism but brands are sponsoring events who are the most watched: World cup of football- World cup of Rugby- Super bowl and Olympic Games. In the first 3 cases players are men, we talk about Zidane, Messi, Chabal. Who watches feminin cup of rugby? feminin football matches? About Olympic Games even if it is mixt, every one remembers Usain Bolt, Christophe lemaître, Alain bernard because their performance in their category are superior to women performances in their category. Unfortunately this is how it proceeds in the mind of every one. Sport remains associated to a male-strong image in the mind of customer so sportswear brands adapt their products to the expectations of customers .

Edouard Lévêque

Sources: 

Les mouvements de mode expliqués aux parents,d'Hector Obalk, Alain Soral et Alexandre Pasche,1992