what they play. So we had to really concentrate on being great at two sports that were not really something that came from our American tradition at all. That took years of product development and talking to consumers about, 'What does this sport really mean to you when you play it$,$ and what does it really mean to you when you watch it$?\text{'}$ The brand attributes for Nike in the U$.$K$.$ are the same $$ we really want to be the authentic sports brand $$ but the sports that are the building blocks for that are very different in the U$.$K$.$ than they would be in the United States or than they would be in Japan."

Outside the United States soccer is the main sport, and Nike has pursued the soccer player and fan with a vengeance. In the United States, Nike has signed a multiyear contract with major league soccer that calls for it to spend $$3\mathrm{.}75$ million a year to sponsor $5$ of the league's $10$ teams. In addition, the contract contains a clause that allows Nike to retain sponsorship of half of the League's teams as it expands. Overseas, Nike spent $$20$ million in a sealed bid process to sponsor the Italian national team. During last year's European championships, it bought up all the billboards around stadiums where matches were held, effectively undermining the event's official sponsor, Umbro. In the spring of $1997,$ it sponsored a worldwide soccer tour that featured top teams. It has also spent millions on global advertising campaigns and signed leading national soccer stars such as Eric Cantona $($captain of the national champion Manchester United soccer team in the U$.$K$.)$ to highly lucrative contracts.

But nothing matches Nike's sponsorship agreement with the Confederacao Brasil de Futebol Brazil's soccer federation, which cost the company a breath$-$taking $$200$ million. Why Brazil? I won the $1994$ World Cup soccer match. The contract is a $10-$year deal that includes appearance: in Nike$-$produced exhibition matches and community events. Nike will supply Brazil's nationa teams with sports kits. In return, the teams will participate in five annual friendly soccer games that Nike is arranging, and to which Nike retains the television rights. Nike will also have acces: to training clinics in Brazil and to the infrastructure of the game.

Nike has applied the same technical skill and drive to soccer shoes that it applied to the basketball shoes. For example, when Nike couldn't find equipment for testing the best stud configurations and traction in cleated soccer shoes, it decided to build its own. The goal is to create the world's best soccer shoe, but that won't be easy. First, the competition isn't yet ready to roll over and play dead. Adidas retains sponsorship of many top teams and players, including the national teams of Germany, Spain, and France. It also sponsors World Cup $1998,$ with the rights to sell official soccer balls and sports apparel. Further, Adidas has invaded Nike's home turf, sponsoring three U$.$S$.$ teams and featuring players from those teams in its U$.$S$.$ advertising. $"$We don't think that anybody can get near to us on the product side," says Peter Csandai, an Adidas spokesman. Reebok, Nike's main competitor in the U$.$S$.,$ has also signed contracts with at least $30$ professional soccer clubs throughout the globe.

And there's competition at home from firms such as Vans, a small California company that aims directly at the teenage market by targeting the California adolescent $-$ an Internet$-$surfing latchkey kid. As the number of teenagers in the United States grows from $25$ million in $1997$ to over $31$ million in $2010,$ this move could prove shrewd. These kids are not into team sports; instead they are attracted by individual sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, and mountain biking. Within two years of entering the market for snowboard boots in $1995,$ for