The Increasing Demand For Adidas Soccer Jerseys

September 15, 2010 at 7:22 am (IB Economics: Section 2)

Adidas was one of the first sporting goods companies to start making professional jerseys, worn by national and international teams, available to the average consumer. There has been a large increase in the sales of these jerseys, as of late, because so many people have started becoming avid fans of soccer, brought about partly by the FIFA World Cup in South Africa this past summer. This special event caused a change in taste and preferences which, in turn, caused a large increase in demand for the high quality uniforms, instead of the cheap replicas that were often considered satisfactory in the past. This increase in demand brought about some competition for the Adidas company because more companies are now willing to produce high quality jerseys now that they realize more consumers are interested in this product. However, even with this increase in the supply of the jerseys, Adidas still remains supreme in the production of high quality, professional soccer jerseys, because it offers a lower price than its competitors while still retaining its level of quality. The graph below depicts the demand curve for Adidas soccer jerseys. Curve D1 represents the demand for soccer jerseys before they started to become very popular. Curve D2 represents the increase in demand for their product do to an increase in popularity for the soccer jerseys. Point A, on curve D1 represents the price of the jerseys before the demand increased and Point B, on the D2 curve, represents the price of the jerseys after the demand increased. Notice, the prices of the jerseys remain the same but because there was a change in factors besides price, such as the popularity of the jerseys, the quantity that was sold at this price increases.

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