Havaianas, best known to the world's consumers as the brand that represents the ubiquitous flip-flop, turned 50 in 2012. It was a year in which the Brazilian company made enough flip-flops to circle the world 50 times.

Carla Schmitzberger, who oversees the brand in her role as head of the sandals business unit at Havaianas' parent company, Alpargatas, said that until the 1990s, "mostly poor people wore" Havaianas. "However, there was a small group of wealthier people that were wearing the product, but they were wearing them at home, and they were embarrassed to be seen with them because they were considered a poor person's footwear," she shared in an interview in the latest edition of Interbrand IQ.

Indeed, the brand was launched in 1962 with the goal of outfitting Brazil's peasants — not by a Brazilian but by a Scotsman, Robert Fraser, who was inspired by traditional Japanese shoe design.Continue reading...

This was supposed to be an off year for Adidas. After all, its Reebok subsidiary was set to lose the NFL apparel deal that it had had since 2001 to Adidas archrival Nike. Plus, NHL players wear Reebok and that league’s season hasn’t started yet due to financial differences between the owners and players. That’s not a help to an area that generally brings in $132 million annually. So last month, CEO Herbert Hainer had to tell investors that the company was adjusting its sales expectations for the year.

However, the Financial Times notes, Hainer also had some good news to share: “We will see record sales and earnings in 2013,” he said. “All that I hear from the markets is that we are winning market share in each and every country.” And, adjustments or no, things didn’t go badly for the sportswear giant this year. Its stock price is up 40 percent from the same point last year.

The FT attributes the stock price staying strong for Adidas partially because of the strong confidence of Hainer and his “shrewd instinct about where the sports goods business must go next to expand its appeal to customers.” Serving an aging market as well as helping people deal with the obesity epidemic are two areas that are helping the bottom line at Adidas.Continue reading...

You may have noticed "Jordans" trending on Twitter today. Inclement weather across much of the U.S. did not stop Jordan Brand fans from lining up in the cold to pick up the new $185-$225 Air Jordan 11 Retro "Bred" shoe from Nike, one of the most highly anticipated releases of 2012 for sneaker heads. One mob scene in Alabama saw local police using pepper spray to control the crowd, who were vying for one of 36 bands that would allow them to acquire the iconic kicks at a later date. Nike's stock rose 4% this morning, while its latest quarterly earnings report indicates the company intends to "focus resources on driving growth in the NIKE, Jordan, Converse and Hurley brands" going forward.

Reebok’s shoes are generally made for athletic use, but the brand now means something else for 150 of its employees across the globe. That’s the number of folks that were sent packing in a recent company restructuring, according to the Boston Herald.

About 65 of those folks came from the company’s US headquarters in Canton, Mass. “Today, we continued this reorganization with the implementation of a new global-direct operating model between the global organization in Canton and our markets, and a streamlining (of) our satellite creation activities,” Matt O’Toole, Reebok’s chief marketing officer, stated.

It also eliminated its European HQ in Amsterdam and its Asia-Pacific office in Hong Kong. That’s too bad, considering the company that is now a subsidiary of Adidas got started in the United Kingdom way back in 1895. Still, Reebok has been a drag on Adidas since its acquisition in 2006, as the Wall Street Journal noted last month. Now it's time for a little fiscal, and physical, fitness.Continue reading...

A few years ago, UGG was stomping all over its competitors, but these days, the Australian company is just dancing as fast it can to keep consumers buying.

Yes, there are still queues at the UGG store in New York's Soho district, but that's mostly among tourists, which is why the brand is opening in the trendier Meatpacking district, joining Patagonia and Lululemon in cozying up to crowds at the Standard Hotel and upmarket retailers such as Jeffrey in a bid to woo higher-end shoppers.

The brand sparked a sheepskin boot craze more than a decade ago, and while it's trying to shore up its US business with a new commercial featuring brand ambassador Tom Brady ("Pink Slip," above) and a new store aimed at men, its popularity persists in markets such as the UK, where this month, the company is opening its seventh concept store and working hard to woo kids of all ages.Continue reading...

In 2002, Nike agreed to fork over £303 million ($485 million) and give a share of retail sales to Manchester United so its iconic swoosh could grace the home kit, away kit and related apparel of the world's most popular soccer team. But their 13-year agreement comes to an end in 2015, and the word from the Daily Mail is that the two sides are in the midst of negotiating a new deal that could pay the Red Devils a massive £1 billion ($1.6 billion).

If signed, it’ll be the largest sponsorship deal in all of sports. Not too shabby for a team that Forbes ranked as the top of its annual ranking of the world’s 50 most valuable sports teams. Forbes valued ManU at $2.23 billion, $350 million more than the second team on the list, Real Madrid. 

Nike will have a six-month window to negotiate, the Mail reports. Sure to be mentioned in the talks is the fact that GM's Chevrolet division agreed this summer to shell out $559 million over seven years so Manchester United would sport Chevy's logo on the front of the shirt — the terms of which contributed to the ouster of GM's former CMO, Joel Ewanick.Continue reading...

In China, it's been a late week whirlwind of pro basketball moves, both on and off the court. Just as news hit that NBA star Tracy McGrady had signed to play for a Chinese team — Yes, in China! — Dwayne Wade officially confirmed the rumors that he had switched sneaker affiliation from Nike to China's Li-Ning brand.

Timed to coincide with the much anticipated two games Wade's team, the Miami Heat, will play against the Los Angeles Clippers in Beijing and Shanghai this week, the Li-Ning announcement was long in the making. In fact, maybe a year in the making. Now, will Wade lead Li-Ning back to glory, and will it drag the reputations of China's brands with it?Continue reading...

Long before the London Games kicked off in July, the International Olympic Committee made it very clear to big businesses and small that you don’t want to mess with them, that they would come after anybody who used the Olympic name or image or implied an affiliation with the Olympics.

The IOC- and LOCOG-empowered ambush marketing squad of branding police got busy, so a small café once called Olympic suddenly became the Lympic and a British florist and shopkeepers were made to take down the bras and window displays set up to look like the sainted Olympic rings.

Areas were designated around all Olympic sporting venues where only official sponsors of the Games, all of which had rolled out barrels of dough, were allowed to show off their logos.

Leave it to Nike, the supposed founder of guerrilla marketing, to break through, though, with not only a rules-testing "Find Your Greatness" TV campaign that featured everyday athletes going for the gusto in other Londons around the world as well as track shoes that were worn by a number of gold medalists and given a bright greenish-yellow chartreuse hue that “the human eye is most sensitive” to, according to NBC News.Continue reading...