Article From Why
record sales of a Nike NFL jersey are good news for Adidas
You probably don't celebrate sports laundry the way I do, so it may not have
occurred to you that last week marked the one-year anniversary of the debut of
Nike Inc.'s Cheap NFL Jerseys.
I didn't hold a party or anything. I'm just noting it.
The NFL, in its own way, made note of it too Tuesday morning by releasing
some stats on the top-selling Cheap Jerseys ince April 1, 2012, which was just a few
days beforeNike's big New York City unveiling.
The headline here is that Washington Redskins rookie quarterback Robert
Griffin III had not only the top-selling jersey last year at NFLShop.com, but
sales of Nike-made Griffin shirts broke the single-season record for jerseys
sold. The NFL doesn't release specific sales data.
This is good for Nike and the NFL, of course, because they benefit the most
of from those NFL Jerseys sales. But the sales data is also a strong barometer of RGIII's
popularity as a celebrity, and that's good news for Nike's arch-rival, Adidas
AG.
The German athletic brand's gridiron business is run out of
Portland-basedAdidas America Inc., and the star of the division is undoubtedly
Griffin, the NFL's Rookie of the Year who became the face of Adidas football
almost as soon as hesigned up to wear the three stripes back in February
2012.
The former Heisman Trophy winner made other uniform-related headlines last
year, to Nike's detriment, when he was scolded by the league for attempting to
cover-up the Swoosh on a pre-game warmup shirt.
Among teams, Super Bowl runners-up the San Francisco 49s led the league in merchandise sold on NFLShop.com last year, which is at least one category where they vanquished the champion Baltimore Ravens, which came in second in sales.
Click to the right to see the players whose NFL Jerseys make-up the top-five best sellers on NFLShop.com over the past year.