To start off our project we searched for studies done by others comparing all three companies. According to https://www.forbes.com/pictures/mlm45jemm/7-under-armour/#12fdf94d3eca, the leading sports apparel brands are as follows 1. Nike, 3. Adidas, 7. Under Armour. This study was done based off of the companies brand value. Furthermore, other research was done to see which sports apparel brand of basketball shoes do colleges prefer.

According to https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2017/10/02/adidas-nike-under-armour-contracts-schools-conferences, Nike was the overwhelming response with 56 of the 86 colleges looked at. Under Armour was the next most popular response with 17, however, Adidas is not far behind with 12 colleges. Only one of the 86 colleges chose a brand apart from these three brands although the report said that this college will have switched to Adidas by the year 2018.

When researching Nike, we have found that “Although with apparel and sports the market can be broad, for the most part Nike primarily targets consumers who are between the ages of 15-40”
(https://mymission.lamission.edu/userdata/schonfd/docs/assignments
/nike%20segmentation%20and%20targeting.pdf).

           Nike sponsors some very largely named athletes which influence teens and children to buy their products so they can be just like their role models. “The company caters to both men and women athletes equally, and is placing an increasing focus on tweens and teens to build long-term brand loyalty” (https://mymission.lamission.edu/userdata/schonfd/docs/assignments/
nike%20segmentation%20and%20targeting.pdf).

          Nike has very unique advertising strategies as they have ads fit to all genders and ages. This makes their company a lot more attractive that they are so supportive of their customers. Especially with the diversity of teens now a days. They like to see that their choices are being supported.

After Nike, we researched information about Adidas and their demographic. We first found that, according to  https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-of-adidas/, “Adidas uses differentiated targeting strategy to target young adults, adults as well as children who have passion for fitness & sports. Although it targets customers in the age group of 13-40 years but majority of its customers are of 15-30 years of age who hail from upper middle class or the luxury class of customers.” Furthermore, we have found that, although Nike is still the dominating brand,

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4253112-adidas-better-sports-apparel-play-right-now claims that “company-wide sales were up 8% on a currency neutral basis to hit all-time records. The adidas brand saw double-digit growth in core markets such as North America and Asia-Pacific. Margins also expanded to hit all-time highs as a result of simultaneous benefits from pricing and reduced input costs. The year saw approximately 475 million Euros added to the balance sheet, bringing adidas' net cash position to €959 million. Net income (earnings) increased 20% year over year.”

Finally, when researching Under Armour we have found that most teens have said that they do not wear this brand anymore. With athletes signing contracts with Nike and Adidas teens have been switching their favorite brands due to  influential role models. https://www.businessinsider.com/under-armour-not-cool-teens-survey-says-2017-1 says, “In a note to investors, the bank's analysts said that only 27% of survey participants ranked Under Armour favorably, while the Curry brand was even lower, at 19%. For comparison, the young male consumers who were surveyed ranked Adidas at 70%, and Nike at the top with 81%. Participants could check as many boxes as they wanted.” We have also found that Under Armour does not target as wide of an age demographic as Adidas or Nike. Under Armour targets mainly around teens to late 20s. According to https://www.businessinsider.com/teens-say-under-armour-isnt-cool-2018-, Under Armour continues to be unpopular with teens. On Tuesday, it had its worst performance in Piper Jaffray's "Taking Stock of Teens" survey yet. It is the brand that's most often cited by upper-income males as one they no longer wear. We believe that since Under Armour is less popular with the teens lately it will be the least preferred athletic wear.