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When I was a kid I was like every other kid, stupid. I was fickle and brand names meant something to me. Brands were so tightly incorporated into the social structure of my early teen years that I would not be happy with clothes from Target, it had to be surfware from the “cool” brands like Blillabong or Quicksilver. Thankfully I grew out of this stage of my life and am happy enough now to wear secondhand clothes from an op-shop if I like the style, brands matter little.

I remember when it came to shoes there were two companies that were cool enough to be worn at school, Reebok and Nike. I was interested in business back then and I thought of these two companies as waring sides fighting for people’s feet. I really didn’t care too much which brand I wore, but it HAD to be one of those two.

Then one day something happened. Reebok started to lose favour with the school crowd. It was a subtle change over time but somehow Reebok become “uncool” and upstepped a third player, Adidas. I can’t put my finger on how it happened or when it happened (no doubt their are academic papers in marketing about this shift) but the change was obvious and the “feel” I had as an impressionable teenage consumer for Reebok and Adidas changed.

Nike of course remained in charge and still is today. Regardless of what I suspect about their manufacturing processes taking advantage of sweatshop labour, from a marketing point of view you have to admire how long Nike has managed to remain the market leader.

Yet again though things are changing. I long ago lost my ability to perceive fashion trend changes since I’m not a teen anymore, but at least from a corporate standpoint a dramatic event has just occurred.

The Times Of India: Adidas-Salomon AG said on Wednesday that it will buy shoemaker Reebok International Ltd in a $3.8 billion deal, giving the company about 20 per cent of the US market and putting it in a position to better challenge leader Nike Inc.

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I wonder if the kids on the street understand what this means and whether there will again be a shift in consumer perception as two of Nike’s largest competitors combine forces to compete. Of course then again no one really knows what this means until the execs making the strategic decisions start to make moves with their new combined company.

Wise & Young Blog: For the new Adidas+Reebok company to compete with Nike, they have to continue to explore other markets, such as Reebok’s innovative idea to sign rappers to their own shoes deals. The also have to focus on design, which in my opinion, Nike has a strangle-hold over all the other shoe companies. If Adidas+Reebok throws more money in to design and less in to traditional advertising, you will see the streets talking (word of mouth) which in turn will mean a larger market share for them and in turn, more money overall.

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