Adidas and Nike into Small Cities

On a recent Nike investor s forum, the company s executives are frequently asked about how to expand into the third-and fourth-tier cities in China. About half of the sales revenue of Nike Greater China Region comes from 20 first-tier cities and many of the third-tier and smaller cities have no Nike stores.

However, Nike executives are still vague about their concrete expansion strategies. Adidas, Nike s arch-rival, is quite ambitious as to opening stores in those cities.

Colin Currie, the new President of Adidas Greater China Region, told reporters in November 2010 that in the company s development plan for the future five years, medium-and small-sized cities are its focus.

Mr. Currie said that there would be over 2,500 new stores in these cities by the year 2015. If what he said becomes true, the number of cities that have Adidas stores will increase from the current 550 to over 1,400.