The New York Times' World Cup blog has shed some light into what may be the biggest feud in Soccer. I've known about the Dassler story for a while, but the coverage provided by the NY Times gives some more details and more importantly a nice storyline that I feel should be highlighted between the two companies. If you care to read more on the legendary fallout (fact or fiction we'll never know), this feature will raise some eyebrows. Anyhow, today we move away from the ball and to the player's connection point, the shoes. It's always about the shoes right?

Outside the world of Nike, is the Adidas empire. They recently acquired Reebok and along with Puma round out the top three clothing / shoe / uniform sponsors of the World Cup. Amazingly enough, the smallest company of the trio, Puma, sponsors twelve teams, double that of Adidas who happens to be the biggest sponsor of the World Cup. Each of the three seems to be employing a different tactic in terms of their sponsorship. Adidas is playing it conservative with their sponsorship, sticking with the old mediums and sponsoring it's home and host team, Germany. It has also blocked out all the TV rights in the United States. Nike is going at it in an edgier manner. Shut out of the television arena (which isn't a bad thing), Nike has resorted to the web, it's viral videos are worth a look and it has even teamed up with Google to create a MySpace like site dedicated to soccer, Joga. It also helps that they are sponsoring the best player and team most likely to win the World Cup. Finally, Puma, the most interesting of the bunch looks as though it has invested for the long term sponsoring most of the rising African nations and Italy.

Now to the meat of this post. The equipment seems to be enjoying a low profile, especially after Puma's one-piece suit raucous from last year. Competing in the 'boot' arena are adidas' +F50 TUNIT 32, Nike's Mercurial Vapor III, and Puma's v1.06. I'm not an  expert when it comes to soccer/football or the shoes/boots associated with the sport, but from the looks of it, Adidas has concentrated on customizing their shoes to play on national pride, Nike has focused on the technology and Puma has focused on design. You think that with all the money spent on promoting these products, they would have the information more readily available. What's the word on these shoes? Besides the aesthetics and being lighter, is there anything noteworthy like the specs on the new soccer/football?

I originally wanted to concentrate on the shoes, but seeing how there isn't much technical information on them, I guess this post turned out to be a look at the World Cup branding strategies for each of the top three companies. Still interested in shoes though? Check this old article out, The History of the Soccer Shoes is a very informative read.