Adidas This chart shows how far Adidas has fallen in footwear Daniel Roberts, Analee Kasudia You could call the phenomenon "vanishing stripes." For decades, the logos that filled the courts and fields of America were all Nike swooshes and Adidas stripes. These days, more and more, you might see the symbols for Under Armour, New Balance, Asics, Li Ning, or even Skechers . Adidas Group, which owns Adidas, Reebok, and golf brand TaylorMade, is still the No. 1 sports apparel brand (not footwear) in the world by market share. But in the United States, it has been in a free-fall for several years. In apparel, Adidas ceded its No. 2 spot last year to Under Armour, which is surging. In footwear, the numbers are also grim. This chart uses 2010 to 2014 U.S. athletic footwear market data from Sporting Goods Intelligence. Based on the data, Nike, VF Corp (which owns Timberland, Reef, Vans, The North Face, and others), and Under Armour (still only an asterisk in sneakers, but growing faster each year) have each risen, while Adidas has steadily fallen.

In 2014, VF Corp surpassed Adidas Group in the U.S. Look at 2011-2012 specifically. At that point, Adidas suddenly begins to trend downward—and it hasn't bounced back since. Adidas Group CEO Herbert Hainer says that the company, which is based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, has "not been as present" in American sports as it should have been. best rated tennis shoe 2014"We definitely have made mistakes, there is no doubt," Hainer told Fortune. puma black shoes price"We are everywhere else in the world much more successful. running shoe store miami beachIn the U.S., we have not invested enough. america nike shoes shop

I think in hindsight, we have not been as present in American football and in baseball as we should be. These are big sports in America. And I think we need closer contact to the consumer in America." Analysts add that Adidas's slip isn't just due to its own stumbles; its missteps also came right at the wrong time, as Nike ( nke ) and Under Armour ( ua ) are killing it. discount on nike shoes india(In 2014, Nike's global sales grew more than 10% and Under Armour's grew nearly 30% while Adidas's grew only 2% on a currency-neutral basis, and declined when measured in U.S. dollars.) discount on nike shoes india"The product pipeline at Nike is just remarkable right now," explains Matt Powell, an analyst with NPD Group and a major voice in the sneaker industry. Eric Tracy, an analyst with Janney Capital Markets, adds, "The easy answer is they haven’t been keeping pace on the innovation front.

And Reebok has been an albatross on their neck." (Adidas Group bought Reebok in 2006 for $3.8 billion; in recent years some critics said it should sell it off, but now the company has positioned Reebok as a fitness brand, and the brand's sales were up 5% in 2014 globally.) To be sure, Adidas has enjoyed some small wins and superlatives in the footwear game recently. It has built to an estimated 30% market share in (American) football cleats; its "Adizero 5-Star 4.0" is the bestselling speed football cleat; and the company boasts that its "Adizero 99g" is the lightest soccer cleat ever. Matt Powell says, "Some of the new soccer boots Adidas has made have been incredibly innovative. That’s not a big deal in the U.S., but it’s certainly big outside the U.S." Adidas has also found some success with its "Boost" cushioning technology, which it first used in running shoes but has now applied in basketball, baseball, skate, and golf, among others. (Boost is also in the Yeezy Boost shoes that came out in February.)

Boost uses a sole of fused plastic pellets to absorb energy. First launched in 2013, Adidas advanced the line this year with "Ultra Boost," priced at $180. The Ultra Boost foam packs in 3,000 energy capsules—50% more than the 2,000 found in its standard Boost shoes. Another form of Boost shoes, "Pure Boost," was Complex 's best sneaker of 2014 . But it will take great strides to compete again with Nike. Take basketball as one example: in 2014, Nike sold $340 million worth of LeBron James signature sneakers; Adidas sold $32 million of its Derrick Rose shoes. (Rose, who plays for the Chicago Bulls, is Adidas's biggest basketball endorser, but he has been plagued with injuries and missed nearly two full seasons in the last four.) Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, and Chris Paul's signature shoes all sold more than Rose's shoes last year—all three of them are Nike or Jordan Brand (owned by Nike) athletes. Adidas continues to blend fashion and sport in interesting ways. For example, last month it released a Damian Lillard " PDX Carpet " sneaker that pays homage to the beloved Portland Airport carpet pattern.

But it is debatable whether the fashion focus will be a successful strategy for a mega sports brand in America. For the full story on Adidas's turnaround efforts, read: Can Kanye West save Adidas ?The requested URL /US/en_US/?l=shop,download_catalog was not found on this server.This week has been a big one in terms of shoe deals for NBA players, with Stephen Curry agreeing to the most lucrative shoe deal in Under Armour history and James Harden making waves by wearing a pair of Jordans mere weeks after agreeing to a $200 million deal to endorse adidas sneakers. Neither of those players are the highest-paid shoe endorsers currently in the business, however, as there are others making more on shoe deals than either Curry or Harden. But before we get into the list of the largest shoe deals, it must be stated that a lot of these contracts are heavily based on incentives such as player accomplishments and sales. Rarely does a player actually receive the full reported amount in a shoe deal, as that money isn’t fully guaranteed.

Here’s a look at the biggest annual endorsement contracts currently in the league: strong – Few NBA stars are more marketable than Griffin, so $6 million for a player that likeable and that talented in a market as big as Los Angeles is an absolute steal for Jordan Brand. Jordan Brand has put Griffin front and center, marketing him heavily in commercials (like the recent Marvin the Martian spot) and even a television show (BGCP3TV in HD) with teammate and fellow Jordan Brand endorser Chris Paul. #9 – Damian Lillard, $10 million/year, adidas – Lillard only recently debuted his first signature shoe, and while it’s a good one, it is easy to look at a $100 million investment in a player like Lillard as a bit of a risk. With LaMarcus Aldridge gone, the Blazers won’t be quite as exciting a team, but that doesn’t mean Lillard won’t be thrilling as the head honcho in a market that absolutely adores its basketball team. Still, it’s the biggest paycheck on this list for a player with the fewest actual accomplishments so far.

But again, keep in mind that a lot of these reported numbers are inflated due to the deals being largely incentive based. #8 – Dwyane Wade: $12 million/year, Li Ning – It took a massive amount of money and some equity in the company, but Chinese shoe company Li Night was able to draw Wade away from the Jordan Brand back in 2012 in the hopes that he could help turn things around for what was then a struggling brand. Three years later, it’s still a struggling brand, with Li Ning having finished in the red every year that Wade has been at the end of their endorsement team. They gave it the old college try, but Wade is crying himself to sleep on his bed of money. #7 – Derrick Rose: $14.2 million/year, adidas – Right before Derrick Rose originally tore his ACL in the 2012 NBA Playoffs, he signed a max deal with the Bulls and a 13-year, $185 deal with adidas, in what has to be considered one of the more fortuitous timings of a cash influx in the history of humankind. Had Rose not bloomed so early in his career, things may have gone very differently for him, but as it stands he’s got one of the largest shoe deals in the business (but again, it was largely incentive-based so he hasn’t cashed in as much as reported figures would have you believe).

Rose and adidas just debuted the Rose 6, so they’re still all-in on a player beloved in his huge home market of Chicago, but then again they don’t really have much of a choice. He’s signed, regardless of his health. #6 – Kobe Bryant: $15 million/year, Nike – While Bryant clearly is toward the end of his career in the NBA, he still is the most popular player in China, which is more than enough to make Bryant worth the price tag as a spokesman for the Swoosh. Every year, Bryant does a long offseason visit to China to keep that relationship strong, but he’s still a pretty popular player in the U.S. too, despite his recent injuries. #5 – James Harden: $15.4 million/year, adidas – It’s fair enough for adidas to put the kibosh on Harden wearing Air Jordans out in public when they just invested $200 million in him over 13 years to wear their three stripes. It’s a hefty price tag for a player not necessarily known for his flash on the court, but the beard is marketable and adidas didn’t have a whole lot of options in adding a bona fide star to their roster.

Lillard and Rose have proven their value to the brand, but they hope Harden will be their biggest draw moving forward. #4 – LeBron James: $20 million/year, Nike – While he’s surprisingly low on this list, James actually has the best-selling individual shoe among current NBA players, with over $340 million in sneakers sold during the 2014 calendar year. Early in his career, James didn’t turn a profit as a spokesman for Nike right out of high school, but the biggest star of his generation was bound to dominate the market share eventually, which he has done for years. Rumor has it that in addition to the $20 million per year that James can earn from Nike if he hits all of his incentives, his deal also includes a guarantee that Nike will commit a large amount of money to marketing James’ brand – making this an even better deal for King James. #3 – Kevin Durant: $30 million/year, Nike – Under Armour worked like crazy last summer to pry Durant away from Nike, offering him somewhere in the neighborhood of a $265-285 million over 10 years.

The offer included equity in the company and a rec center named after Durant’s mother, so the deal was a sweet one with plenty of perks. However, Nike is the single most reputable shoe company in the business and Durant ultimately decided to take the extra bit of cash and the credibility associated with the brand. Either way, he’s making a ton of money to sell shoes. #2 – Stephen Curry: Terms undisclosed, Under Armour – At the end of 2013, Under Armour had a 0.35 percent market share of basketball shoe sales, selling only $30 million worth of product, but following an MVP and championship year from Curry, sales jumped 754 percent last season, pushing Under Armour into second place in the shoe market behind only Nike. That’s almost exclusively thanks to the Curry One, and Under Armour recently showed their appreciation by extending Curry’s deal through 2024. The terms of that deal were undisclosed, but knowing what UA offered Durant a year ago, and knowing that Curry got equity in a company that clearly is on the rise, it’s a fair stretch to venture that when everything is all said and done Curry will be making more shoe money than Durant.

#1 – Michael Jordan: $90-100 million/year, Jordan Brand – On the one hand, it’s kind of ridiculous that a player who’s been out of the league for 15 years is far and away the highest-paid athlete in the world when it comes to sneaker endorsements, but the Air Jordan line of basketball shoes is the whole reason players like Durant and James are getting nine-figure shoe deals today, and his shoes are as popular as they ever have been. Jordan Brand hauls in an estimated $2.5 billion every year, and Jordan’s royalties from that haul are reportedly somewhere between $90-100 million annually. As a player, Jordan made just over $90 million in basketball salaries his entire career. Retirement is treating him well, mostly because his brand of shoes is funding it. This obviously won’t be the end of the industry’s biggest shoe companies chasing after young stars in need of a shoe deal. Anthony Davis, for example, looks primed for an MVP trophy at some point in his career, and while he is under contract with Nike he doesn’t yet have his own signature shoe.