Do People Have To Move Or Get Up?

According to the world clothing and shoe net, it is the largest in the world. Sports goods Retailers, Foot Locker, have always been biased in their evaluation of suppliers. After all, exaggerated words or a little bit of meaning to others may offend other long term cooperative brands. But at a meeting of investors in 2016, its CEO Richard Johnson had something to say. He mentioned that "sustained growth from Adidas is one of the most important driving forces in the development of the industry" and commended the German brand for its "on a great run" - although he immediately added that Nike is still the company's largest partner.

Johnson is not talking nonsense. Adidas is indeed at the center of the 2016 sports shoes market and even the fashion industry. The global trend website Highsnobiety will regularly count the list of the most valuable sports shoes in the world based on the secondary selling price of sports shoes. It is regarded as the weathervane of the current hot shoes. In the TOP10 list for the third quarter of 2016, Adidas Yeezy Boost and NMD occupy 7 seats. Nike Only a pair of Air Jordan 4 Retro Obsidian ranked seventh.

Shoes have always been the largest proportion of sports apparel and the highest gross profit margin. The major brands have applied the most sophisticated technology to the research and development of shoes, and the competition between them can also be said to be concentrated on shoes.

Investment banks also gave different ratings to the two sports brands in 2016. Although Nike has repeatedly explained that the bad earnings data is related to exchange rate fluctuations, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, ZackInvestment and Cowen & amp; Company have downgraded its rating in the past two months, and its share price shrank by 20% in one year. In contrast, Adidas's stock price went out of a beautiful upward curve - it hovered around 84 euro per share in early 2016, and has risen to 145 euros per share in December 9th.

Two years ago, this is not the case. At that time, the list of the most valuable sports shoes in the world was almost swept away by Nike. Adidas had repeatedly lowered its profit targets and became the worst performing German stock in 2014. North America is Adidas's second largest market outside Western Europe, but it is crowding out second of the market by rookie Under Armour. People were talking about the tights of Nike Free, Air Jordan or Under Armour, and when it comes to Adidas, they think of the image of German brands who behave in an orderly way and have no sense of excitement. Now, at least on the topic of explosive money, the hourglass seems to be reversed.

In the view of sports shoes enthusiasts, everything starts with a completely new material.

As far as I can remember, he saw this material in 2013, when he worked in a German automobile company, and BASF, a chemical company, came to seek cooperation with him. The first contact with the Expanded The rmoplastic Polyurethane (hereinafter referred to as "E-TPU") and the appearance of the white foam particles that resemble the bulged rice grain were found to be "elastic enough" by all employees. When BASF introduced the new material, it said it was slow, light, soft and comfortable.

The company did not use E-TPU at all, and the sample pellet made by it was later placed in the office by his colleagues and played basketball. But it has been bought by Adidas and has been given a new name, Adidas BOOST technology, which is used on the sole of running shoes and many new products of Original product line. On some sneakers test sites, Boost soles are evaluated as wearing a "stepping on the cotton" feeling, and Adidas describes it as "a product that you will immediately like when you wear it."

From Ultra Boost, Yeezy Boost to NMD, almost all of Adidas's explosions are related to the magic bubble over the past two years. The company said in its earnings analysts conference call that it sold 12 million pairs of Boost shoes in 2015, and 13 million pairs of Boost sales in 2016. It also sold 400 thousand pairs of NMD in one day in March 17th 2016. In contrast, data from Sports ScanInfo show that Nike's star product Air Jordan 11 Retro "72-10" sold 1 million 70 thousand pairs in fiscal 2015.

Don't forget, from the company's annual sales volume, Adidas's body weight has been only a little more than half of Nike's.

Whether former CEO Herbert Hainer or just Kasper Rorsted, Adidas executives are not stint at praising BOOST. In the third quarter of 2016, Hainer told investors that the company plans to use Boost's technology for more products. "We believe that in the long run, Boost will completely replace EVA (the last generation of running shoes sole material), because no one will put their feet in Boost shoes," she said.

But selling products is not just that Adidas has found a good material and good technology.

Chen Chao, who has worked as a sports shoe agent for 15 years in the country, told reporters that he walked through many foreign and domestic brands of sports shoes, and felt that "the materials and concepts they used are practically similar". The bigger difference is how to pack technology into an exciting concept, and catch the eyeballs and psychology of consumers at once. In short, marketing is more important.

In this regard, Nike has published many textbook cases. In 1987, it launched a visual air cushion sole, exposing a part of the sole of the spanparent air column, so as to reflect its ability of earthquake mitigation. "You think that all the air on your feet is air, which is very easy to understand in terms of vision and concept, so that time, Nike fires." Chen Chao said. In 2012, Nike also made the Fly Knit - a vamp made of a thread, highlighted the lightness and cohesion of shoes. It also used the concept of technology to do marketing and detonated the sports shoes industry.

Adidas has chosen to expose the Boost so that consumers can see or touch the soft and flexible foam particles with the naked eye. Although it has been studied in all the materials, it will be more difficult to clean the Boost without wrapping it up.

Sports brands are familiar with such routines: new technologies, good-looking designs, plus sports stars, can be used to improve the performance of sports equipment. Nike firmly understands the market share of the sport apparel industry. It constantly introduced the Air Jordan, and Kobe Bryant, Lebron James's signature sneakers, always occupy a place in the minds of consumers. In Chen Chao's view, Nike has packed Jordan into a God: "Jordan has retired for so many years, Nike can also engrave so many editions, and every generation is very popular. I think this is the most amazing place for Nike."

But Adidas has not been able to take any advantage in this "prescribed action". In the field of football that Adidas is best at, the quality of the stars and teams signed by Nike is keeping pace with it. In basketball, Nike has more popular players such as Jordan and Kobe. Some people in the sports shoes industry even feel that Adidas has not introduced new technologies and products that impressed the market for many years. Its fondness for it still lies in the Adidas Superstar, which has been on the market for decades.

Now, things are beginning to develop towards the best side of Adidas.

The huge spanformation of the industry over the past two years has made analysts Matt Powell somewhat confused. Powell and sportswear industry have been in contact for 24 years. According to the statistics of NPD group, which is the third party investigation company, in October 2016, the top three sports shoes in the United States were Adidas's Superstar, CONVERSE's All-Star Ox Low and Nike's Huarache, and these three shoes were products that had been in the market for more than ten years or even decades.

"This industry is at a very special point in time, and none of them are in the front line of performance." Powell said in an interview that this is something he has never seen in the past 16 years, and that consumer preferences are shifting from pursuit of performance to pursuit of everyday wear and fashion. Compared to what sports stars wear on the floor, people seem to care more about what stars and tide people wear in their daily lives.

At least, fitness coach Sheng Bo did not go through the Nike shoes again in the gym. There are probably dozens of 20 pairs of sneakers in the raw wave shoes. Adidas and Nike used to be evenly divided among them. But he told reporters that he had worn a lot of Stan Smith and new star Ultra Boost recently. He sometimes wore New Balance's retro shoes and Under Armour.

"We don't just sell a lesson by making any moves," Sheng Bo can do in the gym for a long time to walk upside down or to do 30 chin ups on his instruments, but he knows that "besides professional knowledge, he has to rely on the overall image." Sheng Bo will also wear sports shoes to go out shopping and friends gathering. In his view, a pair of shoes can meet the basic needs of daily sports such as cushioning, comfort, wrapping and reducing pressure on the knees. He will look more closely at the appearance of shoes and match them with clothes. Choosing Adidas is because he is "comfortable and good-looking".

Yang Yuan has been marketing for several international sports brands for 13 years. He told reporters that in this industry, consumers' demand for professional sports products is relatively low. "We only have 10% to 15% of the products for professional people. Most people still like to buy the trend." Indeed, a girl who bought a copycat version of Yeezy Boost on the Internet said she didn't do much exercise, nor had she heard of "coconut shoes". She bought those shoes just because she was familiar with them on the electronic commerce website. Now her mother, who is also not exercising much, has already walked away from the Yeezy.

It seems that Adidas is becoming a beneficiary of the change in consumer tastes. CEO Zhang Qing, a key sports consultancy company, thinks Adidas's focus on fashion trends is more like "using its style and cross-border stars to please consumers more directly".

In fact, whether Nike or Adidas, its sports products have almost the same technical performance. Zhang Qing feels that Nike's emphasis on products is more focused on how it improves the performance of users, while Adidas gradually focuses on the fashion trend. For example, it has made the 50 year old tennis shoes Stan Smith covered with fashionable seals, and has become the focus of attention again.

Adidas cut off the supply of Stan Smith before 2014. After six months of silence, it suddenly appeared in the September 2014 fashion brand C line line conference. People noticed that Phoebe Philo, the design director of C line, was wearing this "little white shoe" when she finished the curtain. Then Stan Smith began to appear frequently in fashion week. Marc Jacobs, Beckham and supermodel Liu Wen all wore it to the photographer's lens. The fashion industry has been stirred up so much that Adidas knows very well that people are starting to follow the stars and find the same money everywhere. It continued to call Stan Smith in the official website, but for a variety of reasons, it sold off Stan Smith after a fashion week, and finally succeeded in playing a hunger marketing.

In the first 10 years of this century, sports brands still hesitate to use the non sports stars in a big way in marketing. After all, the brand that should focus on improving the performance of equipment is being questioned whether they are still concentrating on their own business. But Stan Smith "Resurrection marketing" trader, Adidas Entertainment and Influencer Marketing department's global director Jon Wexler sees this very well. He thinks that entertainment stars or media people can also influence the consumers of sports brands at the moment, and maybe even sell more shoes than athletes help brands.

Wexler confirmed his view with another gesture. He found a rappers Kayne West who had 26 million 400 thousand fans on Twitter, and he worked with Yeezy Boost. The black star and his wife, Kim Kardashian, have always been the makers of entertainment and fashion.

The first pair of cooperative shoes Yeezy Boost 750 chose to release in fashion week February 2015 in New York. For soccer Adidas, the winter without focus is not the best time to launch key products. As a result, only 750 of the 9000 pairs, priced at 350 US dollars, were sold out. In the secondary market, the selling price was up to a thousand dollars.

Then Adidas made the NMD again. The new shoes, which are decorated with colored blocks on both sides of the Boost soles, were sold in extreme limits in December 2015. Before the two sale in March 2016, it was already worn on the feet of celebrities such as Edison Chan, Eason Chan and Shawn Yue. 400 thousand pairs of NMD were sold out on the day of the official sale.

For some emerging fast fashion brands or fashion people, it doesn't seem to be any new way to play: keeping a sense of mystery -- stars or "net red" endorsement -- become a topic of social networking - Limited sales. But now Adidas uses it on sports shoes.

"It has spent a lot of money in marketing these times, and many media exposure has made many entertainment stars melt into the brand added value and stir up the shoes." Yang Yuan had never seen any bright spot in Adidas's marketing before, but now it is "much better than before." The proportion of Adidas's marketing investment to total revenue increased from 12% in 2012 to 14% in 2015.

Wan also regrets that the magic bubble that he has touched has finally had a far greater impact on the fashion industry than its technological breakthrough. "On the way and on Ins, you see all the Ultra Boost men, who haven't seen them running yet." He said.

Adidas's hustle and bustle makes Nike look embarrassed. In the first quarter of August 31, 2016, in the first quarter of August 31, 2016, Nike's revenue increased by 8% over the same period last year, while Q1 grew by 15% in the 2015 fiscal year. Compared with the first quarter of the 2016 fiscal year, Nike's Maori growth declined by 4%, and the gross profit rate was also reduced by two percentage points, and analysts were worried that it had taken excessive price reduction measures to compete with competing products.

The slowdown in the growth of Nike's future orders has also attracted the attention of analysts, which means that the market may not be interested in some products in the future. From the first quarter of fiscal 2015 to the first quarter of fiscal 2017, Nike's growth rate in the future was 11%, 9% and 5% respectively. After realizing the sensitivity of this data, Nike decided not to disclose relevant data in future earnings information.

In the last two quarters of the Nike investor conference, analysts asked executives how they looked at sports performance products with emphasis on performance and more fashionable sports and leisure products. Nike CEO Mark Parker replied, "innovation is a very important part of designing fashion products, and I think lifestyle products should pay more attention to providing consumers with comfort, lightness and breathability. For Nike, performance is an integral part of sports and leisure products, and it is also the advantage that Nike is different from other brands in the market.

In fact, Nike is also trying to cross border cooperation at the same time. It founded the Nike Lab concept store in 2014, selling limited commodities and cooperation with fashion designers. Balmain's creative director Olivier Rousteing, LV men's creative director Kim Jones, and Givenchy's creative director Riccardo Tisci are listed in its 2016 co designer list. In the promotional pictures of Nike and Riccardo Tisci jointly launched the reshaping training series, the muscular models were dressed in flowers and kaleidoscope designs and shoes and hats. Nike believes that these cooperation "subverted traditional footwear and costume design, combining their understanding of street style with advanced customization." In addition, in November 2016, Nike also invited supermodel Bella Hadid in a market activity. Hadid said it had a relentless pursuit of equestrian sports and had an amazing appeal in social media.

In the final analysis, Nike still encourages consumers to fall in love with sports first, and then generate the demand for Nike products, just as its slogan "everyone is an athlete" wants to express. It has always regarded itself as one of the nurturing of Chinese running culture. In a written reply, it wrote, "Nike encourages people to turn from spectators to participants in sports. In the past 5 years, the number of people running in China has increased 5 times." When it launched the new Nike Lunar Epic in 2016, it provided thousands of runners with new shoe trying service in several Chinese stores, so that they could experience the cushioning performance of new products.

But Adidas's explosive operation now bypasses this path. Compared with Nike, they still hope to cooperate with celebrities to tell stories through sports. Not many people will care about those stars who endorse Adidas's exploits. "Nike has been a big boss for a long time, so it is still following the conventional mentality. But as a former boss, Adidas has been overtaken, and has been overtaken by some new people in some markets. Of course, its mentality needs to be changed, and it needs no ordinary path. Zhang Qing sees Adidas's two years' rebound as a backwash after a desperate situation.

Even in the sports apparel industry, people have different views on the two sports brands nowadays. Some domestic sports shoe buyers believe that the sports style represented by Adidas is rising at home and abroad. With the advent of sports leisure brands such as Skech and FILA, more attention has been paid to sports brands. There are also anonymous agents who commented that Nike actually had explosions, "Air Presto", "Sock Dart" and "Lunar Epic Flyknit" and so on. "The sales data in recent two years are very amazing". Instead, Adidas felt that all sorts of hot explosions made in recent years were "hype".

You know, the risk of getting too close to fashion is that the brand is more and the competition is more intense, and no one can tell who is the next fashion trend. An example is that in the selection of the shoe magazine, actress Rihanna and PUMA's Creeper shoes replaced Yeezy Boost 350 as the "shoes of the year" in 2016. The magazine also said that Creeper was the most popular sneakers in 2016.

In any case, sportswear is playing an increasingly important role in everyday life, and in this respect, the influence of fashion celebrities on social networks is no less than that of sports stars in the arena.

The PK between Nike and Adidas is continuing. The latest news is that Nike has just sold its Nike Hyper Adapt 1.0, which is the world's first pair of shoes with automatic shoe lace function. It is called "black technology" from the netizens. Now, the original price of 720 HyperAdapt is priced at 3000 dollars in eBay. As for Adidas, Hainer said at the last investor conference before he left office CEO, whether the Original series of sports and leisure routes or the Perfomance series that emphasizes performance more, the company will bring more lifestyle products to the market.

In the past, competition between Nike and Adidas always focused on which teams and sports stars to bet on. This time, what they need to bet on is a bigger thing -- do people want to move or to tide up?

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