Association Football Markets and Brands
Originally, association football boots (soccer shoes, or more commonly soccer cleats, in U.S. English) were available only in black, but in more recent years have become available in various colours such as blue, green, red, white, yellow, silver, gold and even pink. Big name companies such as Nike, Adidas, Umbro and the like have made an impact on the market with record sales. Nike's flagship shoe is the Mercurial Vapors worn by Cristiano Ronaldo, with other versions such as Total 90 football boot worn by Wayne Rooney. German company Adidas are responsible for the Predator range worn by David Beckham, Gary Neville, and Steven Gerrard, as well as the long-surviving Copa Mundial. The entire German national side wore Adidas boots during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. English firm Umbro produce the Speciali boot endorsed by John Terry and Michael Owen. Sunderland defender John O'Shea wears the Concave football boot - it is a company that claims to manufacture the safest football boot out of the current lot.
In recent times, the most successful of these companies is Nike, and their products enjoy great popularity among professional footballers; among Nike's endorsers are two-time FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho, aforementioned duo Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, striker Ronaldo, Wesley Sneijder, Zlatan Ibrahimović, and other popular players. Adidas, which has been providing football boots with screw-in studs to the German national side since the 1954 FIFA World Cup, have made their impact on the modern market by signing big name players as endorsers: players such as David Beckham, former France captain Zinedine Zidane, Frank Lampard, three-time world player of the year Lionel Messi, David Villa, Steven Gerrard and other successful players. Adidas sells with an image of technology and class in their boots which is key to their success. Both Chelsea and Manchester United had enjoyed long kit manufacturing deals with Umbro, but both teams signed recent deals with Adidas and Nike respectively. Lescon brand lately rose in popularity.
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Famous quotes containing the words association, football, markets and/or brands:
“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“...I’m not money hungry.... People who are rich want to be richer, but what’s the difference? You can’t take it with you. The toys get different, that’s all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It’s all relative.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“When the great markets by the sea shut fast
All that calm Sunday that goes on and on:
When even lovers find their peace at last,
And Earth is but a star, that once had shone.”
—James Elroy Flecker (1884–1919)
“On the other side, the conservative party, composed of the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the population, is timid, and merely defensive of property. It vindicates no right, it aspires to no real good, it brands no crime, it proposes no generous policy, it does not build, nor write, nor cherish the arts, nor foster religion, nor establish schools, nor encourage science, nor emancipate the slave, nor befriend the poor, or the Indian, or the immigrant.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)