updated 11:38 p.m. ET Jan. 26, 2006

PORTLAND, Ore. - When it comes to athletic shoes, the home court advantage has been with Nike.

Rival Adidas has been like a lightweight going into the ring against a well-conditioned heavyweight, trying from Germany to take on the swoosh without budging its bigger competitor in the critical U.S. market.

But Adidas-Salomon AG has just added some marketing muscle with the acquisition of Reebok International Ltd., boosting the combined U.S. share of No. 2 Adidas and No. 3 Reebok to 21 percent — enough to be a real contender, analysts say.

"This clearly, in our opinion, will lead to a much more serious competitive environment than the industry has been exposed to in probably the last five years," said John Shanley of Susquehanna Financial Group.

Shareholders of Canton, Mass.-based Reebok approved the $3.8 billion takeover by a 98 percent margin Wednesday, a day after Adidas won European Union regulatory approval. No antitrust objections were raised by U.S. regulators.

Reebok said Wednesday the companies now expect to close the deal by Jan. 31, a quick conclusion they hope will end the uncertainty that had hurt sales and orders to retailers. Reebok acknowledged three months ago that uncertainty about integration plans had hurt sales, which declined to $912 million in the third quarter of 2005, from $1 billion in the previous year's quarter.

Adidas spokesman Jan Runau at company headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, said the Reebok headquarters will remain in Massachusetts while Adidas will maintain its separate U.S. headquarters in Portland.

Adidas plans to keep the brand identities separate as well, and focus on expanding Reebok sales in Europe and Asia "where Reebok is relatively small and Adidas is very strong," Runau said.

He also said the combination should save Adidas about $25 million a year in production and supply chain costs within three years.

Shanley said that Adidas Chairman and CEO Herbert Hainer targeted Reebok as part of a deliberate strategy to confront Nike, based in suburban Beaverton.

Runau, however, said the U.S. market was only one consideration in the overall growth plan for Adidas.

"The North American business was only one of the many strategic rationales behind our decision to acquire Reebok," Runau said.

Shanley said Adidas has been surpassing Nike in both Europe and Japan, and its sales have grown in the United Kingdom, its home base in Germany, and in southern Europe, "markets where Nike is either treading water or losing position."

He noted that in Japan in 2005, "for the first time in well over a decade, Nike lost the market share leadership position to Adidas. That's a heckuva statement, especially because Japan is an extremely important market for Nike."

The combination of Adidas and Reebok gives them about 28 percent of the international market for athletic footwear, nudging them much closer to the 31 percent share of sales Nike has outside the United States, according to figures by Sporting Goods Intelligence.

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