The "Swift Effect" On Football 🎤💸
Plus Adidas is going after Saudi golf league and NFL is looking at Spain and Brazil.
Welcome to Athletic Interest,
It seems like every day there is a new sneaker collaboration. One minute it’s Homer Simpson and Adidas and the next minute it’s Spongebob and Nike.
Why are sneaker collabs so popular and how do brands keep their designs fresh despite seemingly releasing new pairs each week?
Well, that’s where Virgil Abloh comes in. Despite his early passing, Abloh remains one of the most influential fashion designers, our new video breaks down how he revolutionised the sneaker industry.
Taylor Swift has quickly become one of the most influential people in the sports industry.
Recently, we reported how her fans were altering the public vote for the Golden Boy award and now we find out that her presence at an NFL game has led to a huge increase in viewership and a massive jump in merch sales.
This requires a little bit of context. Swift is reportedly dating Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce and was in attendance at the recent Bears-Chiefs game. This apparent confirmation of the relationship sent her fans into a craze and saw millions tune into the game. Fox drew in more than 24 million viewers, the highest of the week, and saw a 63% increase in female viewers aged 18-49 compared to the Chiefs’ previous game.
This new relationship has also been great news for Kelce, sales of his jersey increased 400% after Sunday’s game and his podcast climbed to number 1 on Apple’s charts. Even if the couple breaks up, Kelce will be guaranteed to at least have a song written about him. Surely there is an excellent lyric about him being a Tight end that is just waiting to be written…
🍎 Sports Business Bites
👟 Adidas is taking legal action against LIV golf.
Adidas has launched several legal challenges against recent trademark applications filed by LIV Golf. According to the protests, Adidas considers LIV’s L symbol to be too similar to its iconic stripe logo. Adidas argues that this could cause confusion, especially if the LIV logo is incorporated into apparel.
Unfortunately for Adidas, this will be a tough case to win. Experts have pointed out that Adidas lost a recent case against Thom Browne in which the court confirmed that Adidas does not have the exclusive right to use stripes on clothing. Adidas also recently backtracked on a similar complaint against the Black Lives Matter organisation.
Any hope for Adidas will rest on the idea that someone might see the LIV logo on a shirt and think they are looking at an Adidas product.
While still difficult, the threat of legal action could help Adidas come to an agreement with LIV over how the logo is incorporated into certain apparel.
🏈 NFL wants to host games in Spain and Brazil.
After hugely successful international games in Germany, the U.K., and Mexico, the NFL is reportedly ready to expand into Spain and Brazil.
The newly renovated Santiago Bernabeu is considered favourite to host the proposed Spanish game. This move would see the NFL play in arguably the most iconic stadium on the planet.
Further expansion in Europe would also fuel speculation that the NFL wants to create permanent teams on the continent. There were once talks of a four-team European division, with the U.K., Germany, Spain, France, Austria, and Ireland all in consideration for their own teams.
This isn’t the first time that the NFL has tried to expand into Europe, the previous attempt was a disaster thanks to an Elephant and Donald Trump. You can learn all about it in our recent video:
🚀 Is Adidas Winning the Shoe Arms Race?
This week has seen the creation of another iconic photo in sports history.
Tigst Assefa recently won the Berlin Marathon and posted a time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds, a new world record by around 2 minutes.
At the end of the race, Assefa paid homage to the secret weapon that she felt was pivotal in this impressive feat, her Adidas shoes.
Held high over her head, and given a little kiss, the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 are what you might call Super Shoes. A new breed of ultra-fast running shoes that the top brands have been in an arms race to develop.
Nike was first with the Vaporfly shoes that helped Eliud Kipchoge to a sub-2-hour marathon. This shoe has since dominated marathon running, being on the feet of 31 out of 36 of the podium finishers at the six most recent major events.
The Adios is a response from Adidas and a promising start. Weighing just 138 grams, the Adios is 40 percent lighter than any other Adidas trainer. It also contains a specialist ramp that extends from heel to toe. According to the company, this feature "triggers forward momentum and improves running economy."
The only drawback of this shoe is that it costs $500 and is technically disposable having only been designed to finish one marathon.
🇸🇦 Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman decides to embrace Sportswashing.
“If sport washing is going to increase my GDP by way of 1%, then I will continue doing sport washing,” bin Salman told Fox News. “When you want to diversify an economy you have to work in all sectors: mining, infrastructure, manufacturing, transportation, logistics all this,” Continued bin Salman. “Part of it is tourism and if you want to develop tourism part of it is culture, part of it is your sport sector, because you need to create a calendar.”
The Crown Price has been accused by many Western governments and charities of sportswashing. This is the practice of using sport to distract from human rights abuses and other criminal activity. Despite the accusations, bin Salman has decided to embrace the tag and has no plans to stop his country's investments in sports.
So, what does that mean for sport? Well, Saudi Arabia has already made its mark, taking over Newcastle United, disrupting golf through the LIV tour and even tempting a host of top footballers into the national league. For the future, expect more of the same, but with a focus on events that take place within Saudi Arabia. bin Salman wants his nation to become a tourist destination and will look to draw new people in through top-level sports events. Saudi Arabia already has the FIFA Club World Cup and the 2029 Asian Games, with a desire to host the 2034 World Cup after abandoning a bid for the 2030 event.
To end this week we are going to leave you with this video and absolutely no context…
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