March Madness Unleashes a Nike vs. Adidas Fashion Competition: May the Best Sneaker Win

Ready for March Madness? How about sneaker madness? That's the tournament without network television coverage or office betting pools that plays out every year as avid collectors debate the merits of swooshes and stripes and just have to get their hands -- err, feet -- in the latest shoes sported by the NCAA basketball teams. The brackets are up at SneakerNews.com. The pick this year? The more old school the better. Sole Collector, a print magazine devoted to sneaker style, has a weekly poll that indicates Jordan VI Retros are the shoe of choice among die-hard aficionados (emphasis on the retro here). Think University of Michigan Fab Five's minimalist Air Flight Huaraches (pictured above) that set the court on fire in 1992 crossed with original hip-hop styles and you've got a winner. But will the champ shoemaker be Nike or Adidas? That's anyone's game.

Nike's cornered the NCAA market of course, outfitting the top teams such as University of Texas in new Hyper Elite uniforms and NIKEiD Hyperdunk shoes. Despite cutouts reminiscent of those that vented the ankles of Michigan's swaggering freshman (who drew record TV audiences and sparked a series of fashion trends including baggy shorts), the Hyperdunks are more slick that old school. And Syracuse's Orangemen are sporting swaths instead of swooshes in a strangely clunky looking shoe dubbed the Jordan Melo M6 "Future Soul" (pictured right).

Meanwhile, Adidas' mark on basketball is better seen on the professional court. The company scored a major win when, after purchasing Reebok in 2006, it signed an eleven-year partnership deal with the NBA to become the league's official uniform and apparel supplier. But even with a $400 million piece of game pie, Adidas wanted more.

So the company made a play last year to grab a chunk of the NCAA basketball market -- and its attendant sneaker collectors, launching a new campaign called "March is the Brotherhood" featuring schools of the top teams alongside marketing its Mad Clima shoe (pictured right). The updated Adidas shoes that are available to customize this year harken back to the silhouette of Nike's Air Flights, but are more in line with the hip-hop trends of yore. All the better to appeal to what TMG, a New York based think tank, estimates to be a group of consumers 100 million strong that are on the hunt for, among other things, kicks with street cred.

There's been a seismic shift in the urban youth market as a whole, with less of an emphasis placed on layering on labels and more on quality and classic styles. Even hip-hop mogul Jay-Z's been reluctant to write off Rocawear's $700 million success in the retail business as simply star-studded floss.