Adidas and Puma take rivalry to European soccer final

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German sportswear makers Adidas and Puma renew their own decades-old rivalry when soccer teams Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund meet in Europe's Champions League Final at Wembley on Saturday.

The German companies were set up after a falling out by the Dassler brothers in the Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach in the late 1940s and remain among the best known global sports brands.

Adidas is the long-standing kit supplier to Bayern and owns a stake of around nine percent in the Bavarian club, while Puma became the sportswear partner of Dortmund a year ago.

While Adidas and U.S. rival Nike dominate a soccer market estimated to be worth up to 4.5 billion euros, Puma is playing catch-up after years of focusing more on fashion than performance sportswear.

As well as supplying Bayern's kit, Adidas is also providing the match ball and uniforms worn by the referee and his assistants for the first all-German Champions League final.

Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer said new Bayern replica shirts were selling well, as was the "Finale Wembley" souvenir ball.

Puma's decision to partner with Dortmund yielded an instant return when the club made it to the final - the biggest prize in European club soccer and expected to attract a global television audience of over 150 million.

"They have overachieved our expectations," Puma Chief Commercial Officer Stefano Caroti told Reuters.

"The exposure that we are having, especially this weekend, will make the club not just a local asset but it will become a truly global player," he added in a telephone interview.

A renewed focus on soccer has seen Puma pull out of sailing and European rugby, saving money in order to plough it into sponsorship deals that will bring it more business.

Retailers in Japan, Malaysia and Britain have been signing up to buy the new Dortmund kit which will be launched next month.

Caroti added the success of Dortmund and individual deals Puma has done with top players including Cesc Fabregas of Barcelona and Radamel Falcao of Atletico Madrid had helped to give its "leaping cat" brand renewed credibility in soccer.

According to reports in English media, Puma is set to agree a deal worth more than 30 million pounds a year to provide the kit for English Premier League club Arsenal, replacing Nike.