Adidas Eurocamp

Aside from being recognized for it's innovative products, Adidas is also known for hosting it's annual showcase of young international NBA talent at Eurocamp. The best pre-draft players partake in Eurocamp with hopes of becoming those selected in the following NBA draft. The big event is attended by current as well as former NBA players and coaches. Next years three day camp will be held in Treviso, Italy on June 8-10 2013.
 Although this event takes place outside of the United States, I am still eager to learn if the Los Angeles Lakers will take part in drafting any international players. The Lakers drafted Ater Majok  (pronounced Ah-TARE Mah-jook) in 2011 for the 58th overall pick, however the deal wasn't successful. Ever head of Ater Majok? If not, he's an Australian professional basketball player and instead of the Lakers, he played for a team in Slovakia during the 2011-2012 season. The video below features, Ater Majok in action. He's the gentleman in the neon shoes :)

Truly Yours, Nicole S

 



 
 

'Save the Joeys' or baby kangaroos! Adidas removes themselves from the culling of kangaroos for their leather to manufacture shoes worn by premier league stars like David Beckham, even after he stop wearing them back in 2006. Animal welfare groups fought hard to boycott shooting the adults, then clubbing the defenseless young kangaroos finally came to an end. Adidas was applauded on September, 3rd 2012 when they helped save over 1 million of those lovable creatures. Phillip Woolley, EU Campaign Director for the AWPC of international operations headed this cause and was successful in doing just that after ten years of trying to get giants like Adidas to finally agree after much pressure from wildlife environmentalist. Even though the hide of these lovely pouch hoppers is 4 times stronger than a cows, that's not enough of a reason to use them for shoes, car interiors and motorcycle seats.        The commercial kangaroo industry would like you to believe that these animals are so populated that they are not enough funds to control irreparable damage that they do to the environment in 'plague proportions' and it helps keep the population of the 'pest' down to a controlled level, but that's a fear spun out of control! The truth is they are coming close to being extinct and with support from the government with public funding from the RIRDC research groups to help these markets of this industry. Also, without skilled ecologist to confirm these results the true data is hidden in numbers, kangaroos are in deep trouble and companies like Adidas are trying to do their part in helping refill the Australian landscape before it's too late! Look it up for yourself www.kangaroosatrisk.net  I did and was shocked. Thank you Adidas for caring that much. Sandi Jones                                                                                                               

Made in Germany

Although we live in America, most of the products we buy say "Made in China." This is something that although some strongly disagree with the practice, it is a reality none the less. Adidas started manufacturing shoes in Germany. While most of their shoes are now produced in Asia, there is still one remaining German manufacturing location left. While from the picture (below) the location looks small, the workers alongside the production lines and machines are capable of producing 65,000 pairs of Adidas shoes each month.

Adidas likes being able to stamp "Made in Germany" on their product and are still able to do so with the last German location still standing. Scheinfeld Germany is where their football boots "Copa Mundial," "Kaiser5," and "World Cup" are produced. Also produced in Scheinfeld are limited numbers of the Supertrekking Outdoor shoe as well as various Porsche Design racing and golf shoes (Adidas).

http://blog.adidas-group.com/2012/10/on-the-path-that-adi-dassler-set-%e2%80%93-shoes-made-in-germany/#more-8438

-Corinne

  On October 12, 2012 Adidas uses social media to announce the development of sports equipment for the snowboarder communities. They use a grassroots program that uses brand marketing strategy to fulfill their mission statement; for Adidas to be the leading sports brand in the world! Every sport has a brand they attach to like Nike is with skateboarding, McDonald's is with surfboards, Rebok is with longboards and now at last Adidas is with snowboarding. The release of the signature apres shred boots arrived and a first time team of professional riders who made a name for themselves and can't be stopped. Having the tight group together will be revolutionary because the team riders are also good friends and will launch their gear in an amazing new way, without advertisements and commericals, but instead on Facebook and Instagram. The transworld article states the Team Manager Chris Hotell or "Hot to tell" is leading the project and understands how the consumer communication & media works. Everything from the development of the designs of the shred boots, to being the spokes person for the brand by a soft launch of the FW13 collection. The line also is making technical outerwear apparel with excellent designers? Team collaborations like pro-riders Jake Blauvelt, Ecic Jackson, Helen Schettini, Kazu Kokubo, and Keegan Valaika are names that will soon become household names after the Olympics, I'm sure. As they interpret a new marketing trend for action sports, they drop-in on a opportunity that will be a model for other companies. By letting snowboarder team members spread-the-word with comments, videos, pictures, but mostly with friendships on their  Facebook walls; delivering the message in style, with chats and buzz! The pros want everyday-riders to feel the growth process of the promotion and be part of it! www.adidas.com/snowboarding and www.facebook.com/adidassnowboardingSandi Jones

Window Shopping, The New Cool!

Window shopping just got a lot cooler! Adidas is currently running an interactive digital storefront window in a six-week test pilot, in Nurnberg, Germany. The virtual window allows shoppers to enter a one-time PIN to interlink their smartphone to a real time shopping bag on the digital window. Once connected, shoppers use hotspots to view and interact with life-size products,  as well as dress and create movement of a mannequin. The purpose of the interactive storefront window is to make it fun and easy to shop (without the use of QR codes or apps) by placing products that interest the interactive window user directly into their smartphone which is made available for purchase online at Adidas NEO. The fully functioning interactive storefront window is "new by definition, new in concept, and new in spirit"(Adidas).

The interactive digital storefront window sounds exciting! I sometimes find myself at checkout with five or more items when I specifically entered the store for one item. I think using the window would not only be fun but I could possibly save some cash by not having to enter the store lol. What's your take on the Adidas interactive digital storefront window? Cool or Not? 

Truly Yours, Nicole S

Adidas gets Bieber Fever!

Adidas is coming out with a new brand called NEO. The brand is a free spirited, new concept about 'living your style.' The line of shoes is targeted towards teens and is now represented by none other than Justin Bieber.

According to Kimberly Wallengren of Adidas, Adidas Chief Marketing Officer, Hermann Deininger had been considering Justin Bieber as a NEO style icon for a while, and jumped on the opportunity when the moment was right. Adidas feels that Bieber posseses the bold, carefree energy that is also that of the new NEO label.
Adidas is excited about the wordwide fanbase that Justin has an influence over. Who can deny a celeb who has upwards of 46 million facebook fans?! He is not only able to promote through social networking, but he is also said to be performing in a pair of golden NEO sneakers for his 2012/2013 Believe World Tour.

Although Bieber is young for me, I'm not NEOs target market. Teens are, and if there is anyone who can reach out to teens all over the world, its Justin Bieber. Good move Adidas.

http://blog.adidas-group.com/2012/10/adidas-neo-gets-the-bieber-fever/#more-8390

-Corinne

4th Annual Wisconsin Adidas Invitational

This past Friday was the forth-annual Wisconsin Adidas Invitational. The Invitational is an exclusive collegiate event featuring cross-country competitions, held at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course at the University of Wisconsin. This years competititors included forty-six male teams (running an eight kilometer race) and forty-nine female teams (running a six kilometer race). The top performing men's open team was Wisconsin State and Michael Atchoo of Stanford ranked first in the official men's open. The top performing open women's team was Brigham Young University and Carolyn Baskir of Duke University ranked first in the official women's open. To learn more information about which schools participated, awards, and the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational event itself, please visit http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/m-xc/adidas-Invitational-2012.html
                                                         
                                                  Truly Yours, Nicole S

Brand awareness is Adidas's 1st step in gaining a market opportunities among the youth of the 21st Century! The strategic plan they follow identifies who the target audience of the young urban influencers are? Having this goal in mind allows growth and a better position for self expression and original ideas to develop. That's why Adidas has teamed up with another leader in the advertising world called AdMod. Using a top notch agency Isobar to gain both high engagement ratings with their ads and having over 290,000 visitors to the Adidas Originals mobile site that took action on their landing page. Not only did the strategy work, but Adidas drove activity to their mobile site with a 2.9 page view per visitor on video views and 100,000 visitors downloaded ringtones and wallpaper!. Admob incorporates graphical banner ads and text link ads geared to gaining college students and people already in the Downloads channels. These select sites allow you to hear favorite music selections and then download ringtones from them , then if you wanted to receive more you could  opt-in,  as well as send your friends ringtones, then enter your zip code to find the closest Adidas location to purchase the Superstar brand. To see these metrics achieved Adidas joined with Insight Express to see what a brand study would show. Over 10,000 sent to friends and this campaign was 20% more recommendations and 34% increase in message association to brand. This is their video watch! ~ Sandi Jones ~               

Adidas Internships

So, we're all college students, right? If most of us are working its probably not the place we see ourselves working in five years, or even two years for that matter. Typically, we are working in order to afford college, not because we feel its in our career path. Well, as I was going through the Adidas Group site, I found that they offer PAID interships to those students majoring in marketing or business. Doesn't sound too bad right?

   The US headquarters is in Oregon, and they even offer a stipend to students who are over 200 miles outside of Portland for living expenses during the extent of the intership. They're looking for students with active lifestyles and who hold a 3.0 gpa. During the intership you can expect at least one project assignment, event planning and presentations. Most of us are seniors, its time to start planning our future!

-Corinne

http://www.adidas-group.com/en/careers/students_graduates/north_america/internship/default.asp
http://stefanvisentin.ifunnyblog.com/adidasheadquartersinportlandor/
http://www.123rf.com/photo_5732479_portland-oregon--night-scene-with-light-reflections-on-the-willamette-river.html

MiAdidas & The Pink Cleats

MiAdidas is an online site that allows customers to customize Adidas shoes. The site provides shoppers with a 3D model shoe to show the customize selection process and ultimately the finale product. Customers are able to select a shoe style, width settings, shoe materials, colors, embroidery, and the option to add text. 

For fun, I recently tried customizing a pair of shoes on MiAdidas and the overall experience was great. I found that there are a variety of shoe styles to choose from, the program is very easy to use, and the 3D shoe zoom and rotations functions were extremely helpful. My favorite customization option was the text; names, words, and dates can be added which is cool if the shoes, for example, were to be given as a gift or there is significance with the date. My only suggestion for the website would be to provide a little background information about which shoe materials are typically used together; I'm not huge on tennis shoes so even while creating my shoes for fun, I continued to wonder if the shoe materials I choose would actually look nice together. 

This October, MiAdidas has partnered with professional soccer players Teal Bunberry, Fredy Momtero, Chris Pontius, Darlington Nagbe, and Kenny Cooper to create personalized pink Adidas cleats in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The players will wear the cleats for games throughout the month of October and all of the players personalized shoes are currently available on                           http://www.miadidas.com/US/Main.action for purchase. 

                  Truly Yours, Nicole S

Handsome, charming, talented, iconic, an image and married to a pop star, David Beckham is to marketers, what a home run is to Baseball fans! He is thought of as the key person to be centered around a brand in the 21st century, analysts say. His ability to appear natural in his own clothes and "that" is the draw that most consumers see. The free-kicker scored his way to being the most sought after celebrity to endorse products and Adidas hopes that signing him will push the trend of using these stars, and will instill his beliefs about his product choices to others. Some competitors don't know what hit them till they get compared. adidas-david-beckham.buycheapr.com/ or expensive custom-made shoes www.nicekicks.com/tag/david-beckham/  The international soccer star does more promotions for Adidas & adding to the mix of attention grabbing people like Katy Perry. The "We All Run" promotion videos allows the shoe company to expand the gap of users to the next generation 17-25 year old that find using sports icons benifical to the brand when it comes to popularity. This begining stage commercial with David Beckham, Derrick Rose, Lionel Messi and Katy Perry sets the stage for performance.      This was done on April 3, 2012 to start off the campaign in promoting the new seduction running shoe called "ClimaCool" which was released on March 24, 2011. The sports athletes and fashion lovers enjoy this colorful fit with special attention to apparel technology allowing a performance standard that can't be surpassed. This stylish, lightweight shoe is both economical and sporty looking with a street look, used with sports geek new breathable fit that has a 360-degree ventilation sweat resistant  fiber that holds 75% of body's energy used to keep feet cool and from over-heating. This is how it looks being held by our brand ambassador!  Sandi Jones fiercekicks450@gmail.com

Environmental Strategy 2015

Adidas Group is in the midst of their 5 year environmental strategy that aims to reduce the group's environmental footprint by 15% by 2015. In order to reach this goal they have established targets in key areas such as management, product, process, and support. Their goals include, but are not limited to, saving energy and reducing carbon emissions, reducing waste, and reducing toxicity by the use of less hazardous chemicals. Changes you may (or may not) be noticing in the Adidas product are better cotton, recycled polyester, and no use of glues in the packaging.

Recently, many companies have been choosing to "go green," whether it be by implimenting more environmentally concious processes or by making improvements to their products. I think that although making changes can be costly and time consuming, it is a good investment. Not only is the cause helping the environment, but it also helps the company by gaining respect by consumers and the marketplace.

Does it matter to you whether a company is environmentally friendly? Would being a "green" company make a difference in your purchasing decision?

-Corinne


http://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/Environment/Environmental_Strategy_2015/default.aspx
http://www.kitmeout.com/2011/11/levi%e2%80%99s-adidas-eco-friendly-%e2%80%9cbetter-cotton%e2%80%9d/

Adidas Under Pressure, Part II

As mentioned in our previous blog "Adidas Under Pressure," Adidas was experiencing trouble from both Cornell University and it's acquired shoe line, Reebok. While Adidas has yet to disclose any information on the situation surrounding the Cornell University protests, Adidas has established a partnership with CrossFit gyms in order to correct declining sales. 

CrossFit gyms provide complete and intense workouts within twenty minutes or less. The speed and challenge factor has sensationalized CrossFit gyms, particularly via Twitter and Facebook. Given that
Reebok helped launch the step aerobics staple nearly twenty years ago, Adidas hopes that by sponsoring CrossFit gyms, Rebook will be rejuvenated and meet its ultimate revenue goals for 2015.  Reeboks logo is currently featured in seventy affiliated CrossFit gyms located throughout thirty countries and has designed both shoes and clothes for their "boxes" routine. Adidas has remained silent about the cost of their new sponsorship.

                                        

                                                            Yours Truly, Nicole S

source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-21/how-adidas-is-whipping-reebok-into-shape