The Rise And Future Of Adidas

Welcome to the thirteenth episode of Full-Court Finance, the podcast from Zacks Investment Research focused on the intersection of sports, business, and the stock market. On this week’s episode, we dive into the rapid rise of Adidas (OTC:ADDYY) in North America and discuss how the German company plans to compete with Nike (NYSE:NKE) for global sportswear supremacy.

The German sportswear giant’s roots date back to 1920s Bavarian-made track shoes. But the more modern version of Adidas was born in the last 1940s after the two founding brothers parted ways—with one going on to found what would become Puma.

Since then, Adidas has grown into an internationally recognized sportswear brand, with deep roots in track and field and soccer. However, it was not until the last few years that Adidas truly expanded its foothold in the U.S.

In fact, Adidas’ 2015 “Creating the New” strategy is something that CEOKasper Rorsted recently pointed to as a key component in its recent rise in the world’s biggest sportswear market.

As part of the plan, Adidas began to bolster its own e-commerce business, adding its name to the list of those taking on Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) . However, maybe more importantly, Adidas made a concerted effort to grow the sportswear company’s appeal for everyday wear at a grassroots level, at a time when athleisure’s dominance in the market has never been bigger.

Still, despite Adidas’ massive growth and 2017 climb, the chief executive has plans to really take on Nike in the U.S., which is one of the only markets where there is still a noticeable gap between the two.

If you have any questions about this episode of Full-Court Finance please feel free to shoot us an email over at podcast@zacks.com. Please also make sure to check out all of our other podcasts at zacks.com/podcastand remember to subscribe and leave a rating in iTunes.

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