Who’s Faster, Higher, Stronger, Nike or Adidas? Preparing to Take Gold at Rio 2016

The pressure is on. There’s less than 24 hours to go until the biggest sporting event of the year and the trend towards healthy lifestyles and fitness obsessions continues to rise, making the Rio Olympic Games 2016 potentially one of the most lucrative sporting events to date. High-profile sponsorship deals and savvy marketing campaigns are guaranteed to improve global brand awareness and consumer engagement – vital requirements within the increasingly competitive sportswear market. While global sportswear sales are expected to grow by 5 percent in constant value terms during 2016, Brazil, the host country, is set to record negligible growth as it experiences one of the worst recessions since 1991, with real GDP growth for the year expected to be -3.8 percent. Given the incongruous mix of a crashing economy, the outbreak of the Zika virus and a surging global sportswear market, what can behemoths Adidas and Nike expect to take away from the 2016 Games?