Adidas hopes that its combined muscle will help it overtake sportswear's global market leader Nike. Its key means of attempting to achieve that goal will be through marketing, and particularly its associations with international sports names.
Beckham is reported to earn about £8m a year in his deal with Adidas, and Woods is believed to be on a five-year contract worth £50m.
However, while Woods is regarded to be in good sporting form, including winning the British Open in July, Beckham's star as a global player is arguably fading. Adidas's clear ambition to build its presence and sales in the US market may not fit with the brand being represented by someone who plays soccer, a sport that has little appeal in the US.
Adidas will need bigger stars and ones with US appeal. Reebok has ties with NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball teams, the three sports that rule the States.
Earlier this year, a report in Fortune magazine, though acknowledging that he has sex appeal, admitted that Beckham has limited appeal as a sportsman. "Unlike Lacoste and Fred Perry, who were both tennis players, most Americans have never seen Beckham play and have no interest in his sport," the article said.
Nevertheless, certainly for the time being, Adidas regards Beckham as its global face. A recent TV ad for Adidas showed him having a kick-about with international players on steel girders suspended in the air, and he recently travelled to New York to launch the latest Predator football boot and was featured on the front cover of Details.
Aside from Beckham, Adidas will use its sponsorship of the 2006 World Cup in Germany and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing to push the brand and, in the US, it will expoit its sponsorship of basketball player Kevin Garnett.
Meanwhile, Reebok has associations with Chinese basketball celebrity Yao Ming and rapper Jay-Z. Reebok also signed Great Britain Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes last year, and R'n'B star Jamelia, who has fronted a range of NFL-themed street apparel for women.
Adidas was founded by Adolf Dassler (hence Adi-Das), who began making shoes in the 1920s. Jesse Owens wore his spikes in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The company's Olympic high point came in 1996, when it outfitted 6,000 athletes from 33 countries. Collectively they won 70 gold medals, which led to a huge 50% sales increase for the brand.
Reebok has British roots, beginning in 1895 when Bolton cobbler Joseph Foster drove some nails through the soles of a pair of shoes, creating the prototype for the running spike. In the 1950s, Foster's grandsons named the company Reebok, after an African gazelle. However, the company did not really take off until 1979, when Paul Fireman spotted its shoes at a trade fair and bought up the US rights.
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