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We’ve all seen the images from Libya and London – people on the streets fighting the establishment – carrying arms in Libya, televisions in London. In both countries the restlessness is happening in tracksuits, hoodies and t-shirts. What strikes me is the fact that everyone in Libya is wearing Adidas, while in London, most are sporting Nike.

The Three Stripes Revolution.

The Swoosh Riots.

Obviously, the brands gearing up for the 2012 Olympics don’t want any association with these images, yet it’s an interesting topic from many perspectives. Why Adidas in Libya? My guess is that Adidas has done such a good job in connecting the brand with football (soccer) that the North-African male population, big into the sport, are prone to go for the stripes. In the west, Nike has established a strong relation to basketball and aimed to become the street wear of choice in the UK. Quite ironically, they even ran a campaign titled “Nike – Claim Your Streets” last year. Not surprisingly, I checked, all the videos for Claim Your Streets campaign have now been taken down from YouTube.

EDIT: @DaGood made a good point on Twitter that not too many people in London are interested in basketball, football is king. And, that Nike has done a great job with Nikefootball in the UK.

(the original notion of Libyan rebels wearing Adidas from Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.)

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