speedo vs. nike swim

I’ve been swimming competitively since I was about eight years old. Growing up with the sport, I’ve seen it evolve from world records breaking to changes in swimsuit design. The brand most commonly thought of with competitive swimwear is Speedo, and I’ve worn my fair share of Speedo suits. Nike, however, has entered the competitive swimwear market and is establishing itself as a serious contender to chip away at Speedo’s share of the market. What I’m really interested in researching is how Nike’s marketing and customer service is different from Speedo’s and what Speedo is going to do (if anything) about Nike’s competition.

As an athlete on the University of Texas Women’s Swimming & Diving Team I have been sponsored by both Speedo and Nike. My freshman and sophomore years the team was sponsored by Speedo. Then we had a coaching change, and our new head coach decided to switch our team to Nike. When it comes to athletic apparel, it’s obvious that Nike does a pretty good job. Our warm ups, shoes and workout clothing are all made for serious athletes, not to mention they are very cute (apparently something girls are concerned with even when working out). When it comes to fast swimming, however, the company has its work cut out for them. Speedo has been doing the research and developing the cutting edge, faster swimsuits that reduce drag for years and years. Nike though has responded quickly coming out with a new suit this year to compete with Speedo’s fastest suit yet, the FSPro.

What’s interesting to me is how these two companies deal with their customers. Both sponsor Olympic athletes, specifically swimmers. Two athletes on the Men’s Swim Team, Aaron Peirsol and Brendan Hansen, are sponsored by Nike. Both are world record holders and Olympic gold medalists. Three swimmers at Texas are sponsored by Speedo: Ian Crocker, Neil Walker and Kirsty Coventry. All three are Olympic gold medalists, Ian and Neil are world record holders and Kirsty is one tenth of a second off of being the best 200 backstroker in history. Obviously these are big time athletes these two companies are sponsoring, not to mention they are also sponsoring the swim team in general (women’s team is Nike, men’s is Speedo).

Speedo, however, doesn’t seem to care much about its consumers. Kirsty hasn’t been paid since 2005. Since then she’s won multiple World Championships and come close to breaking the world record in 3 different events. That doesn’t seem like the way to treat a top client. The company was just as unresponsive with the women’s swim team, which is why we switched to Nike. The only reason the men are still with Speedo is because Eddie Reese (one of the best swim coaches in the world) doesn’t care enough about sponsorships to switch over, but he hasn’t been treated any better. The thing in the swimming world is it’s not very big. Everyone knows everyone, so if Speedo is not treating the best swimmers in the world and one of the top universities in the country (a huge part of its target market) well, how does it expect to keep its business going? Especially with a successful, established company like Nike out to get them?

The article I found talks about Speedo’s marketing strategy, which seems to be based mostly off of reputation. The company gets high profile Olympic athletes to do technique clinics and give motivational speeches as well as talk about how innovative the Speedo suits are. It depends heavily on using well-known athletes to promote its suits. It also says the company is trying to expand its market by developing beach-sports related products.

The only concern I have with this topic is that there might not be much information available when it comes to Speedo’s and Nike Swim’s marketing campaigns. Speedo isn’t a widely talked about company and Nike Swim is definitely not Nike’s most prominent division. It is a very interesting topic to me though so I hope to find enough about both companies to make this my report.

article citation:

Conti, Samantha. "SPEEDO'S MARKETING STRATEGY: FROM BOTTOM TO TOP." WWD (July 18, 2003): 14B. General OneFile. Gale. 3 Oct. 2007 .