• Ad Age, Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:17 AM

The first major clash between two skilled brand marketers -- Nike and Under Armour -- may favor the upstart in the early going, even though the battle is on Nike's traditional turf. The footwear industry had hoped that dueling performance trainers from the two marketers would rejuvenate the long-declining cross-trainer segment, but Nike's performance-trainer sales actually declined in March, the first month Sparq shoes were on the market.

A Citigroup survey of retailers finds that, while preorders of Under Armour shoes were "limited," more than a third of the retailers questioned expected the shoes to sell out in their stores. And 38% of retailers recommend Under Armour's New Prototype over Nike's Sparq, compared with only 21% recommending the Sparq.

Nike has been touting its new cross-trainer line as "better than your better" in ads, but its launch wound up worse than that of its barely promoted predecessor. The failure of Sparq to gain early traction with consumers despite an aggressive marketing campaign might also be seen as a bad omen for New Prototype, the marketer's first non-cleated shoe.

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