Adidas AG, the outfitter of China and 15 other teams at the Beijing Olympic Games, forecasts sales in the world's most populous nation will top one billion euros (US$1.6 billion) in two years.

The company, which last month opened its largest global store in Beijing's premier dining district, is the biggest sportswear brand in China and counts the country as its second-biggest sales market after the United States, said Chairman Herbert Hainer.

"Sports goods will become more popular as the Chinese people become more health conscious," Hainer said yesterday at a press briefing in Beijing. The company's involvement in the Olympics "helps the long-term perception of the brand and creates brand loyalty," he added.

Emerging markets, including China and India, are increasingly important for the world's second-largest maker of sports gear, after the US dollar's decline and the American economic slowdown crimped second-quarter North American sales 20 percent, Bloomberg News said. Adidas is the official sportswear sponsor at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, outfitting 3,000 athletes and 100,000 volunteers with three million pieces of sports equipment, shoes and clothing.

Chinese basketball star Yao Ming will wear sports shoes made by Reebok, a brand adidas bought in 2006. The company also owns TaylorMade golf gear.

Adidas may open 6,300 stores in China by the end of 2010, compared with 5,000 at the end of 2008 and 4,000 in 2007, its China retail vice president Frederic Seiller said.

(Shanghai Daily August 8, 2008)