Apart from Thailand, who went down 2-3 to Vietnam in front of 40,000 fans at the My Dinh Stadium in Hanoi, American sportswear giant Nike was also a loser on the pitch last night.
The Vietnamese team were clad in apparel made by Chinese brand Li Ning while Thailand were wearing the more familiar swoosh of Nike.
Despite the millions spent dressing Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia – with Thailand and Singapore the favourites to win the title – it was the Vietnam-Li Ning combination that celebrated last night on the pitch at the My Dinh Stadium.
Li Ning is a Chinese sportswear company founded by a famous Chinese gymnast of the same name. Li Ning won three Olympic gymnastic golds in 1984 in Los Angeles. He then turned his fame into a sportswear business, dressing the Chinese Olympic gymnastic teams for the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games.
The brand Li Ning is priced above all Chinese brands but below international brands in the Chinese market. It is not available in the United States, probably because the Chinese market is huge enough on its own as well as the current inability of the name to have any affinity with the average American consumer.
At first glance, the Li Ning logo looks remarkably like the Nike swoosh.
Apart from sponsoring Chinese football players like Li Tie and Zhao Junzhe, Li Ning also signed up American basketball player Shaquille O’Neal this year with a Shaq basketball shoe available only in China.
In Singapore’s case, while they might have looked good on the pitch in their Nike jerseys, they couldn’t do the business on the pitch and Vietnam came away with a shock 1-0 win at the National Stadium two Sundays ago.
It goes to show that in sport, it’s not how good you look but how good you play that counts.
Mohammad Ridhuan (Singapore, #2) tries to get to the ball before opponent Huynh Quang Thanh (Vietnam, #16) can clear it. While the Singapore team looked good in their Nike jerseys, they couldn’t make it happen on the pitch. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
All Vietnam football team (both men and women and futsal as well) will wear NIKE in next 5 years from Jan 1, 2009 🙂
Hi Jon,
Thanks for the info.
I’m not aware of the figures for Singapore and Thailand.
Vietnam is a huge market and the figures reflect it.
Happy new year.
les
Happy New Year Leslie.
I read the news today. The Nike deal will be worth 5 million USD over 5 years, with 700,000 in the first year and increments as they go along. The first reaction of players in Nike training jerseys was complaints about “not warm enough for Hanoi weather.” I guess they just have too many holes for ventilation.
Do you have any idea how much Nike is spending on Singapore and Thailand?
Nike era starts from today for Vietnam football squad with training kits:
http://203.162.168.134/CMSData/Images//Bongda/DoituyenVietNam/thangbe20091718341.jpg
The contract of VFF with Nike has not been officially signed neither has new the new kit been announced. However I expect those will take place sometime before the next fixture of the team against Syria on 14/01.
Hi Jon, thanks for the info. Much appreciated. Please feel free to update when you get new information. I’m interested.
Hi Les,
let me sum up what I read from Vietnamese news agency:
http://thethaovanhoa.vn/143N2008123109206234T13/Tu-thang-12009-DTVN-se-mac-ao-dau-Nike.htm (wish you could read it)
The contract will be of duration 5 years starting from Jan 2009. Nike will provide all sporting equipments and apparel for the male and female soccer teams, including teams from U13 as well as futsal. Football academy students will also use Nike equipments. Nike has promised rewards for good national team performance and plans to have an official press conference in early January. I can update on that if you’re interested.
Hi Jon. Do you know how much the new nike deal is worth?
@ qidahs: You have a point. Some don’t like the kit.
“It goes to show that in sport, it’s not how good you look but how good you play that counts.”
Its an assumption to me, that nike kits looked better. nonetheless, the second part of that statement is indisputable.
I dont remember when they signed it with Li Ning cause it was a few years back. By then nobody in the country had heard of such a brand. And now most Vietnamese don’t know what their team are wearing either, there’re only 1 or 2 shops in each major city when I was there last summer.
In many circumstances where they could have chosen another provider, the Vietnamese officials somehow always lean towards a Chinese company. The (pretty ugly) My Dinh stadium was built by the Chinese at a cost of $60M while a leading German firm offered a $53M bid, with a way better design.
But will everyone look the same in the Nike muscle fit design? I’m a fan of Adidas =) and Asics =)
Hey thanks for that info, Jon.
Do you know why they did the deal with Li Ning? How long was the deal for?
As far as I know the contract with Li Ning will end this year and Nike has signed a 5 year contract with the Vietnamese football federation.
The deal with Li Ning has some political meaning and as a Vietnamese I do not like the idea of sucking up to China all the time.