Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Goods

 Trends come and go.
Often, what is popular one day may be obsolete the next.
Adidas used to be the dominant player in athletic gear.
Companies like Converse, Tiger and Puma (Formed after a dispute between the brothers who owned Adidas) were always nipping at the heals of Adidas in search of market share.
 When Phil Knight started Nike, he never imagined that he would be in a position to buy the entire Adidas company. (Nike now owns Converse and Adidas now owns Reebok)
Nike is now the dominant player in athletic gear.

But there is always another angle.
Large behemoths are too entrenched in success to be nimble enough to capitalize on emerging markets.
Companies like Under Armour (And now, to some extent, Adidas) take advantage of a counterculture not beholden to old power structures to create their own empires.
Sure, they learn the game from the big boys but they bring their own swagger, their own history, their own identity to create a new more competitive game.
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3 comments:

  1. DFMay 17, 2011 at 12:34 AM

    I guess this is why Microsoft bought Skype and Google buys everything under the Sun. If you are too big to innovate use your money to absorb and dominate. It's been going on this way since J.Paul Getty.

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  2. BrohammasMay 17, 2011 at 4:14 AM

    Right, If you can't compete, purchase. Under Armour makes shoes and camping gear... they are headed for boheamoth.

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  3. CNuMay 17, 2011 at 7:02 AM

    Double-O signifies the full acquisition/appropriation of everything novel and good about the Black cultural brand. Our time in the global cultural vanguard is now officially over...,

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