Nike vs Adidas: Everything They Own

Two Brands, Very Different Portfolios

Nike's revenue fell 10% in FY2025. Adidas grew 12% in FY2024. For the first time in years, Adidas is not just catching up. It is winning market share in Nike's core markets.

Nike and Adidas together account for roughly half of the global sportswear market. They compete on every continent and in nearly every athletic category. But the portfolio picture behind those brand names is more complex than the logo rivalry suggests.

Nike owns Jordan Brand and Converse. Adidas sold Reebok for $2.5 billion in 2022 after paying $3.8 billion for it in 2006. One company built a diversified sub-brand portfolio. The other tried and pulled back.

When we reviewed both companies' ownership structures, acquisition histories, and strategic directions in our database, the differences in approach were sharper than the revenue figures alone suggest. This is the complete ownership picture for both companies as of early 2026.

What Nike Owns

Nike, Inc. is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon and operates primarily through its flagship Nike brand plus two owned subsidiaries.

Nike Brand The core Nike brand encompasses performance and lifestyle footwear, apparel, and equipment across running, basketball, football, training, and lifestyle categories. It is sold through Nike Direct (owned stores and digital), wholesale partnerships with retailers, and licensed distributor arrangements in certain markets. Nike Direct has been a strategic priority since 2017, with the company actively reducing its wholesale presence with department stores in favor of higher-margin direct channels.

Jordan Brand Jordan Brand operates as a distinct brand within Nike, built around Michael Jordan's endorsement legacy and the Air Jordan franchise. Jordan Brand functions as a semi-autonomous division with its own design team, marketing budget, and athlete roster. It generates an estimated $5-6 billion in annual revenue, making it one of the most valuable sports sub-brands globally. Jordan Brand products are sold through Nike's own channels and through selective wholesale partners including footwear specialty retailers.

Converse Converse was acquired by Nike in 2003 for approximately $305 million and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary with its own brand identity, design direction, and marketing strategy. Converse is primarily a lifestyle footwear and apparel brand rather than a performance sports brand, targeting a younger, culturally conscious consumer segment. Converse generated approximately $2.4 billion in revenue in FY2024, though the brand has faced declining growth in recent years as the classic Chuck Taylor silhouette has faced increased competition from other heritage sneaker brands.

What Nike No Longer Owns Nike divested Hurley (surf apparel) to Bluestar Alliance in 2020, Cole Haan (dress footwear) to Apax Partners in 2013, and Bauer Hockey to Kohlberg & Company in 2008. Nike's strategy has consistently been to focus on its core athletic brands rather than maintaining a lifestyle or category-adjacent portfolio.

What Adidas Owns

Adidas AG, headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, operates primarily through its flagship Adidas brand. It disposed of its two most significant other brand holdings over the past decade.

Adidas Brand The core Adidas brand spans performance and lifestyle footwear, apparel, and equipment. Its key performance categories include running, football (soccer), training, and basketball. Its lifestyle and streetwear positioning, built around the Adidas Originals line and silhouettes like the Samba, Gazelle, and Stan Smith, has been the primary driver of its revenue growth surge in 2023 and 2024.

Adidas settled the costly termination of its Yeezy partnership with Ye (formerly Kanye West) in late 2023 following the partnership's collapse in October 2022. The company managed down its inventory of Yeezy product through selective releases in 2023 and 2024, generating approximately €700 million in Yeezy sales that the company directed toward charitable donations and its own bottom line. The Yeezy resolution removed a major overhang from Adidas's financial picture.

Five Ten Adidas owns Five Ten, a niche performance footwear brand specializing in outdoor, cycling, and climbing footwear. Five Ten was acquired in 2011 and operates as a relatively small specialist brand within the Adidas portfolio with limited consumer brand awareness outside the outdoor and mountain biking communities.

What Adidas No Longer Owns Adidas sold Reebok to Authentic Brands Group in 2022 for approximately $2.5 billion after acquiring it in 2006 for approximately $3.8 billion. The Reebok transaction was widely seen as a strategic misfire: Adidas struggled to integrate Reebok's positioning and to prevent it from competing with the core Adidas brand for the same consumer segments.

Adidas also sold TaylorMade Golf to KPS Capital Partners in 2017 for approximately $425 million, having acquired it in a complex restructuring from Callaway Golf. The golf divestiture, like the Reebok sale, reflected Adidas's decision to focus entirely on its core athletic brand rather than managing a diversified sports portfolio.

Head-to-Head Comparison

The Nike Reset Under Elliott Hill

Nike's FY2025 revenue decline reflected the consequences of strategic decisions made under John Donahoe's tenure, particularly the significant reduction of Nike's wholesale presence with multi-brand retailers in favor of a direct-to-consumer emphasis that generated short-term margin improvement but weakened brand visibility at point of sale.

Elliott Hill, a Nike veteran who rejoined as CEO in September 2024, announced a course correction: reinvesting in wholesale partnerships, recommitting to performance product innovation, and rebuilding the company's relationships with the running and basketball specialty retail channels that Donahoe had deprioritized.

Jordan Brand and Converse both underperformed in FY2024 and FY2025, with Jordan facing growing competition from New Balance, Asics, and On Running in the premium performance and lifestyle footwear space, and Converse struggling to sustain relevance among its core younger demographic.

Adidas's Momentum Phase

Adidas entered 2026 in a period of unusual competitive strength relative to Nike. The Adidas Samba, Gazelle, and Handball Spezial silhouettes drove extraordinary demand in the US and European lifestyle footwear market in 2023 and 2024, with Samba in particular becoming the best-selling casual sneaker in several major markets.

CEO Bjorn Gulden, who joined from Puma in January 2023, has been credited with rebuilding Adidas's brand narrative and restoring confidence among both consumers and retail partners following the Yeezy crisis. Under Gulden, Adidas has maintained its wholesale relationships with multi-brand retailers rather than pursuing the aggressive direct-to-consumer shift that damaged Nike's retail presence.

In February 2025, Reuters reported that Adidas was specifically targeting a larger US market share, recognizing that Nike's strategic repositioning had created an opening that Adidas had not seen since the early 2000s.

Puma: The Third Competitor

Puma occupies a distinct third position in the global sportswear market. Kering held a majority stake in Puma until 2018, when it distributed its Puma shares to shareholders as part of its luxury-focused strategy pivot. Puma is now an independent publicly traded company (Frankfurt: PUM) with annual revenues of approximately €8.8 billion for FY2024.

Puma is not owned by either Nike or Adidas, but it shares Adidas's German heritage and competes directly with both companies in performance footwear and apparel. Bjorn Gulden's move from Puma to Adidas was itself a notable signal of the competitive dynamics between the companies.

What This Means for Consumers

Brand ownership decisions affect the products you can buy, the prices you pay, and the channels through which you find them.

Nike's ownership of Converse means the Chuck Taylor All Star is funded by Nike's $3+ billion annual marketing budget and Nike's R&D infrastructure. It is not an independent heritage brand. Adidas's decision to sell Reebok to ABG in 2022 means the Classic Leather is now an ABG-licensed product, managed as part of a portfolio of licensed heritage brands rather than as a strategic investment by a sportswear company.

These distinctions matter. A brand owned by its original strategic parent receives different investment than one licensed through a brand management company. Consumers rarely know the difference. The brand name looks the same on the shelf.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Nike own Jordan Brand? Yes. Jordan Brand is a wholly owned brand within Nike, Inc., not a separate publicly traded company or independent entity. Michael Jordan himself holds no ownership stake in Jordan Brand; he has a long-term endorsement and licensing agreement with Nike that grants him a royalty on Jordan Brand revenues, but Nike owns the brand outright. Jordan Brand operates as a semi-autonomous division with its own creative and marketing teams.

Did Adidas own Reebok? Yes. Adidas acquired Reebok in 2006 for approximately $3.8 billion, intending to use Reebok to compete more effectively with Nike in the US market. The integration was widely considered unsuccessful: Reebok and Adidas competed for similar consumer segments without clear differentiation. Adidas sold Reebok to Authentic Brands Group in 2022 for approximately $2.5 billion, taking a significant loss on the original acquisition price.

Who owns Puma? Puma is an independent publicly traded company on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker: PUM). It is not owned by Nike or Adidas. Kering SA formerly held a majority stake in Puma but distributed its shares to Kering shareholders in 2018 as part of Kering's strategic focus on luxury. The Dassler family connection to both Adidas and Puma traces back to the founding families, but the two companies have been entirely separate since the 1940s.

How large is Converse compared to the rest of Nike? Converse generated approximately $2.4 billion in FY2024 revenue, representing approximately 5% of Nike's total group revenue. This makes Converse a meaningful but not dominant contributor to Nike's financial results. Converse has faced slower growth in recent years as the classic canvas sneaker market has become more competitive, though it remains one of the best-recognized footwear brands globally.

Which company has the better direct-to-consumer strategy? Both companies have emphasized direct-to-consumer (DTC) growth, but their approaches have diverged. Nike pursued an aggressive wholesale reduction strategy from 2017 to 2024 that ultimately hurt brand visibility and retail presence. Adidas under Bjorn Gulden has maintained stronger wholesale relationships while building its DTC capability more incrementally. As of early 2026, Adidas's more balanced approach appears to have produced better near-term revenue outcomes, though Nike's DTC infrastructure remains larger in absolute terms.

Explore Related Brands

• Nike - Flagship brand of Nike, Inc.
• Jordan - Basketball brand owned by Nike, Inc.
• Converse - Lifestyle brand owned by Nike, Inc.
• Adidas - Flagship brand of Adidas AG
• Reebok - Sportswear brand, sold by Adidas to Authentic Brands Group in 2022
• Puma - Independent sportswear brand, formerly owned by Kering

Browse all sportswear brand ownership profiles →

Sources

1. Nike, Inc. Annual Report FY2025 — https://investors.nike.com 2. Adidas AG Annual Report 2024 — https://www.adidas-group.com/en/investors/ 3. Reuters — Adidas targets US market share as Nike struggles, February 2025 — https://www.reuters.com 4. Statista — Nike vs Adidas global revenue comparison 2025 — https://www.statista.com 5. Authentic Brands Group — Reebok acquisition — https://authenticbrandsgroup.com 6. Financial Times — Nike strategic reset under Elliott Hill — https://www.ft.com

All brand ownership data verified through WhoBrands.com's research methodology. Last updated: March 11, 2026.