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Companies like Nike, Adidas and others are launching new soccer shoes and products with rapid fire to coincide with the season, highlighting the increasing competition for fans following the world's biggest sport.
"We're out there 365 days a year, but they're are certainly times when all eyes are on football," said Joaquin Hidalgo, vice president of Global Marketing for the Nike Brand.
Oregon-based Nike recently released the T90 shoe, which it credits for much of its growth in soccer business worldwide. And it will release the Mercurial SL in 2008 - a carbon fibre shoe not originally intended for sale but instead designed like a concept car with no boundaries.
"We've had more product innovation in the past eight months than in the past 13 years," Hidalgo said.
Soccer has traditionally been the domain of European companies such as Adidas. The Germany company has an aggressive plan of its own.
Adidas has a new "Predator" shoe hitting retail stores now, a Euro Ball to come out at the draw and two new shoes in early 2008 - one building on its most popular shoe and the other designed for its soccer star David Beckham.
"This is really an exciting time of year for the sport at Adidas," said Chris McGuire, who is the head of soccer brand marketing at Adidas.
Puma says it will be releasing a new speed shoe in 2008, its first major soccer product launch in several years.
The latest shoes are faster and lighter than ever before.
"It's a great marketing platform," said David Carter, principal at the California-based Sports Business Group. "They can capitalise on the buzz of a sport at a time when everyone is focused on it."
Soccer continues to grow in popularity in key markets such as the US and Asia, which has shoe companies vying for the top spot.
Nike says it wants to be the sports dominant brand by the next World Cup. The company has increased its soccer revenues from about $40m in the 1990s to approximately $1.5bn. It recently made a bid to purchase Umbro PLC, well-known soccer footwear and apparel company.
Battling it out
But Adidas sees soccer as the backbone of its company and does not intend to yield its position. Adidas recently battled with Nike for nine months in a bid to outfit the German Soccer Federation and won, despite a significantly larger bid by Nike.
Industry experts say the competition is likely to continue to grow as the sport does.
"I think not only is it (soccer) important now but it is becoming much more important," Carter said. "It's pretty safe to say those companies are focused on responding."
Sapa-AP
