That growth can be linked in part to Adidas’s introduction of its Boost midsole technology in 2013. Designed in conjunction with German chemical company BASF, Boost is squishy foam cushioning that is layered into the shoe to increase comfort and energy transfer. Boost has since been integrated across Adidas’s products, from lifestyle to running shoes. Nike Air Huarache Femme John Horan, founder of Sporting Goods Nike Air Max 270 Dame Intelligence, an industry analysis firm, calls Nike Internationalist Mujer the technology “comfortable as hell.” But at first, sales were sluggish.Boost checks the boxes from an innovation standpoint,” Gaudio said. “You just need to let [consumers] know it’s out there and why they should care.” To do that, Adidas took out its checkbook and went looking for talent.
Since 2014, Adidas has quadrupled its presence among Major League Baseball players (signing Xander Bogaerts of the Boston Red Sox, among others) and doubled its NFL roster (King said two-time league MVP Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, a longtime friend, actually asked to join Adidas). On the basketball court, Adidas’s $185 million deal with then-Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose was diminished by the point guard’s injury woes, but that didn’t stop the Nike Air VaporMax Dame company from luring Harden away from Adidas Superstar Homme Nike in 2015 for $200 million. This season, Harden is the front-runner for NBA MVP.It’s always great when you have a brand that wants you and will do whatever it takes to get you and market you the right way,” Harden told ESPN, just after making the switch. “I have a voice that can and will be heard.”
Adidas has been making even bigger bets on the entertainment side — a realm in which it typically has been stronger. The company has added Pharrell Williams, Kendall Jenner and West, whose 2016 deal could end up being worth more than $1 billion. “I think it was one of the wisest investments in the sneaker world,” Wu said of a West-Adidas relationship that already is paying off. “You can think of Kanye as being somewhat of a Michael Jordan for Adidas.”
West’s first Jordan-like moment came in Nike Air Max 90 Mujer 2015. On May 9, he took the stage at the Nike Air VaporMax Mujer Wango Tango concert wearing all-white Energy Boost sneakers. Before the performance, the shoes weren’t doing particularly well. After the performance — as photos of West in the kicks circulated on the Internet — the product sold out. About a week later, he did the same thing with the Ultra Boost shoe.While Adidas’s Kanye era has brought has brought the company once-unimaginable success, Nike Air Max 95 Dame it also highlights the industry’s fickleness. “Absolutely, they had a business plan and marketing strategy. [But it] was a lot of luck as well,” Wu said. Referring to the success of West’s cncerts, he added, “You can’t have a marketing plan for that.”
Horan posited that Adidas was the beneficiary of another stroke of fortune.
Thanks to the NBA All-Star Game, February is huge in the footwear industry. It Adidas Superstar Dame is the month when companies release their Nike Air Max Vision Femme biggest products. It’s also when income tax returns start coming in, fueling shoe purchases.
But in late 2015, the government enacted the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act. While the law was aimed at combating tax fraud, it also delayed tax returns from 2016 for many low-income families. That meant less money for February shoe releases, which caused sales at places such as Foot Locker to tumble.