The key money metric where women outshine the men

afr.com:

The Matildas are beating the Socceroos in the lucrative competition for merch.

The Australian women’s team have sold more official jerseys ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup than the men’s team managed during and since the male equivalent tournament last year, says Nike, a major sponsor of both sides. And they haven’t even played a game yet.

Sam Kerr is one of the star attractions at the Women’s World Cup.  Getty Images

Nike Pacific boss Ashley Reade said the marketing potential for the women’s team is now greater than the men’s. A big part of that is due to the star power of Sam Kerr, the Australian skipper and Chelsea striker who Mr Reade says is arguably one of the biggest athletes in the world, bar none.

Nike is a major sponsor of the CommBank Matildas and also sponsor Kerr individually in a deal reportedly worth as much as $1 million.

The sportswear giant gifted boots to Kerr when she was 16, and she signed on with Nike as a contracted athlete three years later. Now 29, Kerr is the global face of Nike’s Mercurial boots, alongside male star players Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe.

Mr Reade said Nike had “done a lot of work” to triangulate the potential impact of Kerr’s performance and the prospect of launching a Kerr-specific range of boots was real.

“Absolutely it is, it will be interesting to see what plays out post the event,” Mr Reade told The Australian Financial Review.

Ahead of Thursday night’s World Cup opener and the demands by Matilda players for pay parity with male players, the Nike boss said the marketing potential of the women’s team had passed the men’s, and Kerr was arguably on the cusp of becoming Australia’s biggest sport star of either gender.

“I think she is one of the biggest athletes in the