Paper: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) Title: IS HOOD TO COAST STILL JUST A LARK? NO, ITS NIKE VS. ADIDAS Date: August 20, 1995 Summary: The feverish pitter-patter of little stripes and swooshes is turning the relay into a bitter sports-shoe rivalry Corporate ego will be on the line as never before when the 14th annual Hood to Coast relay, that unique blend of road running, sleep deprivation and barely controlled chaos, begins this Friday. Throughout the day, an army of 17,000 runners, walkers and volunteers will launch their lemminglike westward trek toward the sea.It's a lighthearted, if grueling, lark for most competitors, but don't be fooled by appearances. For some, this is serious business, BIG business. This year's Hood to Coast relay again will be a stage for one of the most intense and personal rivalries in the athletic-shoe industry, Nike vs. Adidas. A Nike team narrowly edged an Adidas squad last year in the race's closest finish ever. Although officials from the cross-town rivals are attempting to downplay the significance of this year's event, they again are fielding elite-level teams. In fact, the companies are upping the ante this year by sponsoring top-flight women's teams as well. For Adidas and Nike, the relay has more to do with machismo than marketing. The race won't provide a significant promotional boon. But winning the largest footrace in what has emerged as the athletic-shoe industry's capital will bring bragging rights, no small matter to two companies as competitive as Adidas and Nike. The rivals already are playing mind games with one another, refusing to divulge their full roster of runners, even to Bob Foote, Hood to Coast originator and organizer. ``This has become quite a bitter feud,'' Foote said. Alberto Salazar, former marathon world record holder and captain of Nike's elite team, ``has been calling me every couple days, asking me if Adidas' list of athletes is ready.'' A little history makes today's Nike-Adidas grudge match easier to fathom. Beaverton-based Nike stands alone atop the athletic-shoe and apparel industry. Its nearly $5 billion in annual revenue puts it far ahead of second-place Reebok International Ltd. and third-place Adidas. Adidas, based in Germany with U.S. headquarters in Portland, once was as powerful and dominant as Nike is today, perhaps more so. But Adidas experienced a series of disastrous setbacks in the 1980s and eventually was surpassed in size by Nike and Reebok. An influx of new ownership and talent helped the company reverse course early this decade. Much to the chagrin of Phil Knight, Nike chairman and chief executive, that new talent came from Nike. The colorful Rob Strasser and design master Peter Moore, both senior Nike executives, led the defection to Adidas, agreeing to lead the German company's U.S. subsidiary. They set up shop in 1991 in a funky old office building in Northeast Portland. The company's comeback has continued despite Strasser's death of a heart attack in the fall of 1993 at age 46. - ``Rolling Thunder'' honored Which brings us to last year's Hood to Coast relay. Nike and Adidas entered teams loaded with talent. Nike had been the first to raise the stakes, previously winning the 1993 event with a team of handpicked athletes. Adidas decided to enter its own squad last year, hoping to unseat reigning champ Nike. Salazar, former world record holder in the marathon, led the Nike team. Todd Williams, arguably the nation's best 10,000-meters competitor, ran for Adidas. In Strasser's honor, the Adidas team adopted his nickname, ``Rolling Thunder.'' Remarkably, the teams were evenly matched. In a race that lasts more than 15 hours, the Nike and Adidas teams remained within minutes of each other and actually swapped the lead more than once. Foote said that once Knight was informed that the race was boiling down to a scrap between Nike and Adidas, he jumped into a helicopter to watch the competition from on-high. Nike finally arrived at the Seaside finish line about four minutes ahead of Adidas, the closest race in the relay's history. - ``Stop the presses'' Days later, Knight issued an edict at Nike's headquarters: All 2,500 employees were to cease work and attend a 4 p.m. presentation. ``Phil said stop the presses,'' Salazar said. ``It was the first time I know of that everything here was just called to a halt.'' At an emotional ceremony, Knight saluted Nike's Hood to Coast team and applauded Salazar for his initiative in pulling the squad together. In words that to this day are reverberating through the halls of Adidas America, Knight praised the Nike team for beating ``Rob Strasser and his ghost.'' Knight then presented Salazar with the keys to a black BMW convertible. ``Knight was really pumped,'' said Foote, who attended the ceremony. ``He took this all very personally.'' - Adidas takes offense Knight's remark about Strasser and the extravagance of the gift offended many, even within Nike. Word of Knight's comment about Strasser also quickly made its way across town to Adidas America. Though Adidas executives were infuriated, they responded publicly only in jest. In a company newsletter, Adidas America said that it would present jackets to its Hood to Coast team members with the embroidered message, ``Up Yours, Phil.'' Four months later, Adidas took out a full-page ad in The Oregonian congratulating its cross country team, which had just competed at the national championship at Blue Lake Park in Gresham. The Adidas runners were pictured running past a black BMW, its hood up, apparently broken down. - No ``cold war'' So will this year's race bring similar fireworks? Will Salazar again scream himself hoarse? Will Knight and Adidas America's new Chief Executive Steve Wynne prowl the skies above the course in dueling helicopters? Perhaps because of the media attention, Adidas and Nike representatives are taking pains to minimize the significance of this year's Hood to Coast relay. ``We're not loading up,'' said David Murphy, Adidas America's running promotions manager. ``I haven't been able to get a lot of runners we were originally seeking. We're not going into this thinking we have to prove something against another company.'' Salazar also downplayed the rivalry. ``It's serious, but at the same time we're going to have fun,'' Salazar said. ``The rivalry with Adidas is really secondary. We don't want to get into an escalating thing here, like the Cold War.'' But as Foote and other onlookers said, companies full of sports fiends would not bother or pay the expense to gather top-flight runners if the point weren't winning. ``Anytime you get a group of runners like these, it's going to become very competitive,'' Murphy ``They're going to run to win.'' Jeff Manning covers the business of sports for The Oregonian. He can be reached at 294-7606 or by fax at 294-4079.