Athletes have undoubtedly become less important in the promotion of footwear and apparel for brands. In my analysis, this has been because of the ease of dropping clothing onto entertainers active on social media and letting those musicians and social media stars use their platforms to sell the product. The problem is entertainers are a more volatile group and the short-term gains provided by aligning with musicians and entertainers can in some instances hurt the brand and limit the development and research of products which can reach more potential consumers than fashion. As I’ve said, fashion is fickle.
For adidas this couldn’t be truer. Kanye West has attacked the brand continuously in the last few months. His billion-dollar Yeezy brand he feels gives him the right to say and do whatever he likes, which has included wearing Nike product and building up other brands in apparel, like GAP, which undoubtedly cuts into a small market of casual wear for adidas. It should be noted that adidas has always been heavy into the entertainment side of fashion in sportswear, but at the core of the brand has always been a dominance in sport, soccer in particular.
Their sports dominance has never transitioned into other areas. There aren’t any champions for adidas in the NBA. There is Kareem, but “big men have never sold sneakers.” The brand had T-Mac and at one point Kobe, but with Nike’s partnership with Bryant’s family, adidas can’t properly celebrate those championships with Kobe’s product and T-Mac doesn’t have any memorable moments. The Three Stripes has a roster of athletes in the NBA, none have a championship except Candace Parker and as much as she represents and gives the Trefoil a standard, it’s in a sport where Bill Burr just gave the game more airtime than any of the talented players in the league. The W doesn’t sell kicks, but it could:
Which leads us to the two men pictured below. Do you know them? My guess would be probably not. adidas team tech hoodie black women shoes cheap isn’t given the same respect as it is around the world. Here is the interesting thing though, adidas sponsors two of the fastest most popular sprinters in the sport, but they haven’t really made a sincere effort to create narratives and introduce the world to these two. The amazing thing is that one of them is a 18-year-old phenom who has done the impossible in breaking records owned by Usain Bolt. Erriyon Knighton skipped college and turned pro during high school and before his prom he shattered Usain’s record. Noah Lyles is easily the most entertaining showman in the sport. At one point during the World Championships, he turned around during a race on the track and pointed at his adversary and brand teammate Knighton. Last night in the Diamond league they battled again, and Lyles set a Meet Record. A search on adidas’ news site delivers nothing about either guy.
U.S. runners Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton, and Michael Norman sweep the men’s 200m podium at the Diamond League meet in Monaco, as Lyles wins with a meet-record time of 19.46.
With Kanye’s volatility and the absurd slowness of adidas’ bet on Fear of God and basketball in the U.S., the brand has two stars waiting to be molded and turned into advocates for the sport. Knighton vs Lyles is the rivalry Nike tried to create between Kobe and LeBron. adidas has been given a golden opportunity to generate an enormous amount of content and storytelling around their duo, but when so much energy is given to a roster of NBA players who have accomplished very little the brand has placed itself in a pit with a bipolar entertainer who verbally and mentally abuses people publicly and does the same with his parent company. You’re reading this and you’ve probably never heard of Lyles and Knighton… that’s on adidas.