There are fewer and fewer Adi Nike sponsorships in major leagues. What’s going on?

Fireball, Team Star, Universal Celebration, Samba Glory, TV Star... On the occasion of another World Cup year, do these familiar names make our thoughts travel back in time? Some distant summer? Perhaps compared to everyday league games, the name of the ball used in each World Cup is more popular.

The World Cup match ball released by Adidas has been integrated with the huge cultural symbol of the World Cup over the long years. However, apart from the name and pattern, have you really noticed the changes in the sponsors behind the game balls?

In fact, the game balls used in mainstream leagues are no longer dominated by Adidas and Nike. Over time, more and more emerging brands have joined the competition for game balls.

Inventory: Which of the five major leagues is better at using balls?

On June 16, the Premier League officially released the game ball for the 2022-23 season. The design inspiration of this football comes from the 1992-93 season, the first year of the Premier League. It is a special edition to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Premier League. It not only reproduces the spherical pattern design of the 1990s, but also adds a crown and "30" to the pattern. The words are full of ritual in the details.

This is also the 22nd year that Nike has joined hands with the Premier League. From 1992 to 2000, the Premier League match balls were sponsored and provided by local sports brand Miter. Today, this local sports brand is still the supplier of game balls for the English Championship, English League One, English League Two and other leagues, as well as the FA Cup and League Cup.

After 2000, Nike became the official sponsor of the Premier League match ball. Over the past two decades, Premier League game balls have become bolder in color and given a deeper connotation of the times in design.

According to the official statement of the Premier League, the irregular black stripes and bright orange dots of the game ball for the 2021-22 season are designed to highlight that “the Premier League attracts, summons and brings fans from all over the world. The ambition to become one."

At different points in the season, Nike will release different game balls: the standard model at the beginning of the season; after entering the winter, the winter game ball with a more eye-catching appearance and visual identity; entering the final game A special ball for the sprint moment of the stage.

On May 25, La Liga officially announced the game ball for the 2022-23 season. This new official match ball has a white background color, supplemented by bright colors such as black and blue, and a graffiti-splashed ink-style design, which has a strong visual effect. Its design is inspired by the magical visual effect of a kaleidoscope.

On June 30, 2019, the 23-year cooperation between La Liga and Nike expired. After this, the balls used in La Liga matches were sponsored by Puma.

After Puma took over, the La Liga game balls have become more avant-garde and bold in terms of ball design and color matching. In the past two seasons, Puma has designed two official match balls for La Liga, which are used in different match situations.

Among them, the white ball with a relatively conservative color will be used in most games; the brightly colored special ball will be used in national derbies, city derbies and other focus events to add to the already fierce competition. Adds a pop of color.

On May 19, the Bundesliga officially announced the balls for the new season of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. The highlight of this football is that the design is inspired by fans - the pattern on the ball is a colorful fan silhouette with scarves and flag elements, symbolizing the passion released by fans every weekend in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 stadiums.

In addition, the colorful patterns also symbolize the diverse characteristics of clubs competing in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2.

Starting from the 2018-19 season, Derbystar replaced Adidas and became the official match ball supplier of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2.

Compared with the footballs produced by Adidas that rely on thermal bonding splicing technology, the most prominent feature of the footballs produced by Derbystar is that they are purely hand-sewn.

A spokesman for the German Football League said, "Derbystar has long represented the highest quality of game balls", which is also an important reason why they chose Derbystar as their new partner. As early as the 1970-71 season, Derbystar has become a partner of several Bundesliga clubs. In the 1979-80 season, this sports brand founded in 1968 provided game balls for all 360 Bundesliga games.

On May 20, Ligue 1 officially released the game ball for the new season. This game ball is authorized and released by KIPSTA, a team sports brand owned by French sports goods retailer Decathlon.

The dynamic pattern on the spherical surface reflects the high level and ornamental value of Ligue 1 as the highest level of French football, as well as the core values ??of "intense and competitive". It is worth mentioning that the blue, white and red colors that make up the pattern come from the French flag, reminding people that this is the first time a French company has provided official game balls for the French top league.

This is the second time in recent years that the French Ligue 1 has changed its match ball sponsor. In the first half of 2017, Adidas ended its cooperation with Ligue 1. From the 2017-18 season to the 2021-22 season, the German football equipment brand Uhlsports replaced Adidas as the ball sponsor for Ligue 1 matches.

As of the deadline, Serie A officials have not released the game ball for the new season. However, in the new season, Serie A game balls will officially enter the "Puma Era". On March 7 this year, Puma reached a cooperation agreement with Serie A. Starting from the 2022/23 season, Puma will become the official technical partner of Serie A Professional League, and will become the official technical partner of Serie A, Youth League, Italian Cup, Italian Super Cup and Serie A e-sports. Official match ball sponsor of the event.

As for cup competitions, the official match balls for the Europa League and UEFA Cup are provided by Molten, a well-known Japanese ball manufacturer.

The match balls for the UEFA Champions League, as well as major national team events such as the UEFA Nations League, European Cup, and World Cup, are still owned by Adidas. The Copa Libertadores and South American Cup, as well as the America's Cup, as well as the Chinese Super League, are still Nike's sphere of influence.

Looking at the changes in match ball sponsors in the five major European leagues, it is not difficult to find that the monopoly advantages of Nike and Adidas no longer exist. New forces represented by Puma are joining the blue ocean competition for game balls.

Nike’s arrogance and complacency may be a major reason for their loss of trust. In 2019, when La Liga decided to change its match ball sponsor, the Spanish media "AS" reported that La Liga was not satisfied with the official match ball provided by Nike.

Because the appearance of the La Liga match ball is too similar to the Premier League and Serie A match balls, the ball design basically uses the same basic template, and then changes the color and league logo, it is difficult to show The uniqueness of La Liga. Puma promises that the match ball provided for La Liga will have a unique design.

Adidas’ “shrinkage” in the football market is more strategic. In recent years, Adidas has lost its glory and has been struggling with various crises and difficulties. Around 2015, Adidas experienced a period of performance difficulties.

At that time, the company stated that it hoped to transfer more resources from league cooperation to teams and players, "to further strengthen cooperation with top international teams and young and promising athletes." This may be possible Explain why in 2017, Adidas gave up its sponsorship cooperation with the Bundesliga and Ligue 1. The financial report released by Adidas also shows that the performance growth of the football category has obvious lack of stamina.

Nike is struggling to recover, and Adidas is experiencing sluggish growth, which objectively gives other brands room to join the competition.

Take Puma as an example. In recent years, this brand has entered the football landscape in a big way. It has won the jersey sponsorship of Manchester City with a sky-high 10-year contract of 650 million pounds, cooperated with Serie A on technology, signed Neymar, etc. These measures all reflect its brand determination to “get a piece of the pie”.

KIPSTA and Decathlon also hope to use the sponsorship of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 match balls as a springboard to better enter the field of professional football.

Not only that, KIPSTA and Decathlon have also set their sights on the Belgian league. Starting from this season, Decathlon will cooperate with the Belgian Professional League for 5 seasons.

Is this a bright future for sports brands to flourish, or is it a short-lived prosperity? Only time will reveal the final answer.