The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 277 — Rebuilding the Three Stripes 🛠
Adidas needs to move beyond Yeezy. Here's how it does.
Gooooood morning, family. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate you.
Hope you had a fantastic weekend. Yes, I am still mad Angela Bassett did not win an Oscar last night. Thanks for asking.
Let’s jump in.
Rebuilding Adidas
We’ve talked a ton about the headwinds Adidas is facing after the company’s earnings call last week. But let’s talk about some solutions.
The core problem: Adidas lost its core identity behind the allure of Kanye West and everything he brought.
Yeezy was a self-driving car for Adidas. You just let the brand cook. It made money.
Obviously, the brand simply doesn’t have that anymore. And, because of that, it has to essentially start over again.
So here we are: That’s what most of the coverage details now. You’re being told Adidas is broken. But how does Adidas rebuild? Can it come back from this? What are the solutions?
I have some ideas.
Fixing Adidas: Here are 5 things I think Adidas could do to rebuild its core in a smart way.
Focus on North America: Adidas’ biggest customer is Europe — 37% of the brand’s sales in fiscal 2021 went to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The brand is based in Germany so it’s European focus makes sense. But that disparity should shift a bit. Here’s why.
The U.S. is the biggest importer of footwear in the world. It’s too big of a market for Adidas to not take advantage of it further.
Yeezy was it’s crutch in the region for so long, but it doesn’t have it anymore. Adidas has to make something else shake.
Pushing core styles here and better aligning with trends — like this new 90s wave — could provide a big boost for Adidas.
Reorganize collaborations: With West gone and Beyoncé’s deal coming up, now is a perfect time for Adidas to rethink the way it does collaborations. Not just what it collabs, but who it works with.
We’ve seen from Adidas’ Ivy Park struggles what happens when a celebrity influencer isn’t as active as they should be with their brand.
Celebrities and entertainers are cool and essential to brands today. But Adidas needs more folks who are passionate about design and apparel. That’s what they hope Jerry Lorenzo brings to the table. We’ll see come April.
Find a new star athlete: New Balance’s re-emergence didn’t start with Teddy Santis or Joe FreshGoods — it started with Kawhi Leonard. The brand put itself on a big sports stage and struck gold when Leonard won a championship. He made the brand seem cool.
Adidas has athletes like James Harden, Damian Lillard and Donovan Mitchell who are all great. But none are moving culture like, say, a LeBron James or even a Steph Curry to a certain extent.
It’s not easy finding the next gem in the sports world, but Adidas has enough roots in the space to figure out who the next wave is. The brand would be smart to try and ride it.
Lean in on luxury: Adidas has already done this to a certain extent with collaborations with Gucci and Balenciaga. But I think the company would do well to do more collaborations like these across more high-end brands.
It has an in on LVMH through Pharrell. Adidas would be smart to utilize that to establish itself as the premier brand in the luxury sportswear space.
Enough of the faux-Yeezy collabs: You can’t move beyond your ex if you keep dating people that look like them. It’s fine to have product like the Ozweego and the AdiFoam Q and all that. But people associate that with Yeezy. Adidas will never move beyond if its styles don’t change.
There’s more than enough core product there for Adidas to latch on to. It’s already got styles like the Samba and Forum that have been working.
Lean in on that. Make it a thing. That would only make the brand stronger.
To be clear: I’m not calling these fool-proof solutions — that’s not my job. These are only ideas that I had when I thought about how Adidas could clear its own path again and reestablish itself.
Adidas probably won’t do everything here, but I think some of this will certainly be executed over the next few years. We’ll see. I just hope the brand can bounce back. Because, the more competition in the space, the better.
The GOAT sneaker has some issues
The reimagined Air Jordan 3 won’t be my sneaker of the year because it was born in 1988, but that doesn’t mean this retro isn’t special.
It’s an occasion anytime this sneaker comes back because it’s the most important Jordan ever and maybe the greatest sneaker of all time.
This is the shoe that kept Michael Jordan at Nike. He was ready to dip out after the 2 until Tinker Hatfield came in and worked his magic. Now we’re here.
That’s why it’s so disappointing to see so many people having quality control issues with these sneakers. It hasn’t been just a few here and there, either. Lots of folks have jumped in on social channels to complain about these joints.
The problems range from glue stains to offline branding to weird-looking elephant print like what you see here below.
Let’s be real: It’s not uncommon for Nike product these days to come with a few QC issues ranging from glue stains to moldy pairs. Some shoes have just always had these issues, too. Just look at the Air Max 97, for example. The left and right shoes are typically a bit asynchronous.
This isn’t me making excuses here, but this can happen when you produce shoes in mass.
The more of a pair available, the less likely it is that all pairs are going to be absolutely pristine.
My only hope was those issues wouldn’t pop up with as important of a shoe as this one. Turns out I was wrong. Hopefully, though, folks can still appreciate them.
Bottom line: It’s still the White Cement Air Jordan 3.
Another Joe FreshGoods joint
Joe Fresh has been up to a whole lot lately from his work with Vans to the charity work he’s done with his Community Goods arm. Today he’s back in his New Balance bag.
What’s happening: We got a teaser…for a teaser of Joe FreshGoods’ next project. He added this to his Instagram story last week. Something is being announced today.
He also tweeted the same thing at the end of February. There’s a project coming. The only question is what.
I’m hoping that this is another announcement for the Conversations Amongst Us group.
The Conversations Amongst Us project was something JFG directed with folks from the Black Soles ERG at New Balance.
We were told that the conversation would be continuing but hadn’t gotten much else outside of the 574 that hit shelves late at the tail end of last year.
It’d be nice to see that project moving forward in a different capacity with a new theme to it. We’ll see.
Regardless, whatever we get is going to be fire. It’s JFG.
I will never forgive MSCHF
If MSCHF hadn’t made those stupid red boots then these stupid brown Mario boots would never exist.
Thank goodness these are a 1 of 1 pair. I don’t know if I could take seeing somebody walking down the street in these joints screaming “let’s-a go,” because that’d definitely happen.
Can we just let this video game/anime shoe thing end here? Plz and thx.
What’s droppin, bruh?
Raised by Wolves x Saucony Grid Azura 2000 “Pack Leader” — Monday, March 13
Nike Air Max 1 “Great Outdoors” — Wednesday, March 15
Nike Air Max 1 “Corduroy” — Friday, March 17
New Balance x Action Bronson “Baklava” 990v6 — Friday, March 17
Jordan Brand x Nike SB “Pine Green” Air Jordan 4 — Friday, March 17 (Skateshop drop)
Thank you so much for rocking with me today! I appreciate y’all. Have a fantastic week.
Let’s chat again on Friday. Until then, peace and love. Be easy, be safe, be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯