How Adidas Is Introducing a New Generation to Its Oldest Sneakers

Adidas Originals is getting a makeover.

On Friday, the German sportswear large will launch a brand new marketing campaign together with a contemporary “visible id” for Adidas Originals, its 51-year-old style and life-style division. It’s a part of the model’s technique to capitalise on the surging recognition of franchises just like the Samba and Gazelle, which have changed Nike’s Dunks as the most recent “it” sneakers amongst younger, fashion-forward customers over the previous 12 months and a half.

“The plan is to introduce the heritage and historical past of Adidas Originals to a brand new, youthful group of customers who’re discovering these merchandise perhaps for the primary time,” mentioned Torben Schumacher, senior vice chairman international common supervisor of Adidas Originals, basketball and partnerships.

The marketing campaign — bearing the tagline “We Gave the World an Authentic. You Gave Us a Thousand Again” — will shine a light-weight on the completely different subcultures which have adopted the sneakers over time, Schumacher mentioned. The Celebrity, for instance, was initially designed as an on-court basketball sneaker however was later adopted for informal use by hip-hop teams like Run-DMC.

The resurgence of Adidas’ life-style sneakers got here at an opportune time for the corporate, which was left with a €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) gap in its steadiness sheet following the pricey termination of its Yeezy sneaker partnership with rapper Ye in October 2022. (The corporate has since recouped a big quantity in orders because it started selling its backlog of unreleased Yeezys in Could).

In Could, on the corporate’s first quarter earnings name, chief government Bjørn Gulden instructed analysts and media that the model was shocked on the sheer demand for Sambas in late 2022, after its limited-edition collaborations with Gucci and Wales Bonner drove unprecedented curiosity within the sneakers. Adidas responded by ramping up manufacturing of Sambas, aiming for tens of millions of pairs by the top of 2023, a goal it had initially set for early 2024, Gulden mentioned.

Adidas’ hope is that constructing advertising and marketing and storytelling round these sneakers will construct long-term affinity amongst customers at a time when “retro” styles proceed to dominate the approach to life footwear class.

“These sneakers have allowed us to play with the strain between sport and tradition for therefore lengthy now,” Schumacher mentioned. “That is an intersection that’s so attention-grabbing and significant for at this time’s [younger] era.”