How Football and Fashion Revived Mizuno, Japan's Sleeping Sportswear Giant
The 120-year-old brand once had legends like Rivaldo winning the World Cup in its boots, but faded from the spotlight. Now, a fresh push in football and lifestyle sneakers has led to record sales.
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Last week, when Mizuno announced the signing of Portuguese footballer João Félix to an endorsement deal that also made him the face of the brand’s lifestyle category, I knew the time was right to publish this story I had long planned about the Japanese brand’s fascinating history, its unique relationship with football (soccer), its fall from the spotlight and why its rebirth makes for the ultimate underdog story.
Few brands have had a bigger impact on sports culture over the years than Mizuno, the company founded as a humble sporting goods store in Osaka in 1906, by Japanese brothers Rihachi and Rizo Mizuno. By the turn of the following century, Brazilian legend Rivaldo led his country to win the 2002 World Cup, wearing boots (cleats) designed by Mizuno, which by that point had developed into a multi-sports performance specialist, with top athletes around the world competing in its products.
But after seemingly having the world at its feet, the brand faded from the spotlight in the late 2000s as it was eclipsed by fast-growing sportswear behemoths like Nike, Adidas and Puma.
Today, Mizuno—which is on course to post annual revenue close to $2 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2025—is experiencing a new wave of growth, with record profits and sales.
The brand is reaping the rewards of the unwavering quality of its performance products, from football boots to running shoes to golf equipment, modernising its marketing strategy, and once again working with big-name football stars like Félix and Sergio Ramos. Sales have also grown thanks to its increasingly popular lifestyle sneakers and growing fashion apparel offering.
Stick with me as we dive into Mizuno’s very own underdog story.
But first, here are three things my friends at OffBall and I are watching in sports culture this week.
James Reynolds of Unlicensed FC makes crazy 1-of-1 hand-painted jackets inspired by iconic sports jerseys. He has been commissioned by everyone from James Harden to Kaka to Patrice Evra.
Victor Solomon is another creative whose work is a must-see. Check out his handmade, sports-inspired artworks and heirlooms.
- of Snobette News says Nike is set to reveal a new collaboration with a womenswear brand at one of the remaining fashion weeks. Any guesses?
A Cult Classic
By the sixties, Mizuno had opened its first manufacturing facility in the US and steadily grew its reputation as an elite athletic equipment manufacturer across a multitude of sports. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, it sponsored legendary athletes like American track star Carl Lewis and seven-time Grand Slam tennis champion Ivan Lendl.
But it was in football where Mizuno truly made its mark on culture, still referred to this day as the football hipster’s brand of choice.
By the early 1990s, Mizuno manufactured the kits for several of the J-League’s top teams, including Nagoya Grampus Eight and Sanfrence Hiroshima. The psychedelic kit designs and retro training jackets are something of football heritage. Original editions still fetch ridiculous prices on resale sites today.
Mizuno’s greatest moment in football came with the signing of FC Barcelona and Brazil national team captain Rivaldo. In 2001, the brand launched its now-celebrated “Wave Cup” line of boots. The following year, Rivaldo wrote himself, Brazil and his specially designed Mizuno Wave Cup boots into the history books, leading Brazil—with five goals and three assists—to becoming world champions at the World Cup hosted in Japan and South Korea.
Legends and cult heroes like Shunske Nakamura, Patrick Kluivert and Roberto Carlos have since worn Mizuno’s boots.
But Mizuno, which was always somewhat on the fringes, faded from the global football spotlight throughout the late 2000s and 2010s, as Nike, Adidas, Puma (and even Mizuno’s local rival, Asics) cemented their hegemony over the sports sponsorship market—with far greater budgets to sign the best athletes and teams not just in football, but athletics, tennis and most other major sportswear categories too.
Back on the Scene
While Mizuno was never seen as a “cool” brand to wear, many football experts I spoke to told me that the brand’s boots have long been far superior to those of its competitors. But Mizuno simply couldn’t—or decided not to—compete in the high-budget marketing battles waged by its European and American competitors. It meant even its footwear wasn’t dressed up in flashy designs to convince the consumer it was helping them run faster or jump higher.
Mizuno also lost out because of its lack of a sportswear offering, meaning it had less to offer both athletes and sporting goods stores by way of product, compared to more modern sportswear brands who understood the cultural importance of fashionable sports clothing, as well as footwear.
Mizuno was therefore unable to market to younger consumers in the same way as its competitors and increasingly failed to secure endorsements with elite footballing talent as they had done in years gone by.
But football’s fragmenting athlete endorsement market—which has seen brands like Sketchers and Decathlon muscle in with mega shoe deals for players like Harry Kane and Antoine Griezmann in recent years—has allowed Mizuno to re-emerge. So too has a rising appreciation among football “hipsters” and edgy fashion consumers for the brand’s retro apparel and jersey designs from years gone by.
In its recent earnings report for nine months ended 31 December, the brand specifically called out football as a high growth category responsible for the company’s recent successes. Revenue increased by 4.4 percent year-over-year to $1.15 billion, fueled by football product sales of $99.3 million, a 17 percent increase compared to the year before.
In 2022, Mizuno signed former Real Madrid defender and World Cup winner Sergio Ramos, after his move to Paris Saint-Germain. Then came the signing of João Félix last week, fresh off his January loan move from Chelsea to AC Milan and the end of his Adidas deal. It was the biggest indication yet that Mizuno now has the budget and appetite to spend serious marketing dollars on top-talent. Though perhaps not as highly rated as he was a few years ago, at 25 years old, he’s Mizuno’s first major signing in many years of a player in their prime.
Mizuno has also modernised the aesthetic of its marketing to compete with the glamorous products offered by the likes of Nike and Adidas. Félix has been wearing the Mizuno Alpha II boot, helping the brand push a more futuristic-looking model compared to its more rudimentary silhouettes.
An Unlikely Fashion Player
Interestingly, Mizuno also announced that Félix would also become the face of the brand’s lifestyle (read: fashion) footwear and apparel category. The brand has become an unlikely beneficiary of the sportstyle sneaker trend in recent years, which has breathed fresh life and resulted in unprecedented sales for other once-obscure performance brands founded at the turn of the 20th century, including New Balance, Brooks and Saucony.
Sales of fashion sneakers, along with running footwear and lifestyle gear also helped push the brand to record sales and profits in its third quarter ended Dec. 31, Mizuno said. In recent years it become savvier at marketing its unique sporting heritage. In 2021, it released a collection inspired by its Nagoya Grampus kits of the 1990s, produced in a campaign with a modern, streetwear-inflected twist.
Meanwhile, the brand’s performance credentials paired with the eccentric design quirks of its lifestyle footwear have made Mizuno an increasingly popular option for fashion consumers looking for Y2K “dad sneakers” but not wanting to wear the same Asics and New Balance shoes as everyone else. The crazy midsole of the Wave Prophecy LS (seen above) is a great example.
In sports, we love a good underdog story. The tale of Mizuno’s new dawn—after two decades away from the spotlight—is exactly that.
That’s all for today, friends. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
Until next time!
DYM