Brendan Dunne 
You’ve heard plenty this year about the efforts of adidas, and how that brand is “back” as a result of their ongoing attitude in recruiting new talent and nailing modern designs. Much noise has already been made about the partnerships planned from the powerful Dame of Kanye, Pharrel, and Nigo. The brand has had no shortage of major hits this year in terms of new footwear – the adidas Training Badpak met logo in blauw and the various BOOST models are slowly becoming ubiquitous on the lifestyle side of things. On top of those developments, word got out today that the brand has just acquired top Nike designers Denis Dekovic, Marc Dolce, and Mark Miner, and will be opening up a new “creative design studio” in Brooklyn as the home of this new talent.
All these attitude are definitely major, but are they enough to help adidas close the gap between them and Nike? We wanted to get our readers’ opinions on the matter, so we took to Twitter to figure out what you collectively think of the latest adidas developments. Plenty of internal players at adidas have branded this whole movement as the “Rise of adidas”, and that notion is definitely reflected in the responses gathered here. adidas is obviously one of the most powerful and storied sportswear brands around, but with their recent slip to the #3 spot in US sales behind Under Armour and Nike, they’ve definitely got some work to do. See what our readers thought on the matter in this latest episode of Urlfreeze News Twitter Conversations.
“@SneakerNews: Kanye, ZX Flux, Hiring Nike designers…has adidas been making the right attitude?” They’ve had a better year than Nike
— S.R. Holland (@SugarShayneR) adidas bape damian lillard
@SneakerNews made low key attitude…all apart of the plan, now its time for the big welcome over
— des3 (@THEGOODKID333) adidas bape damian lillard
Readers agree that all of the attitude that adidas has been making feel particularly momentous. While Nike is still ahead in terms of sales, the Three Stripes’ recent signings have given them a more event-filled calendar in the eyes of these readers.
Long-term: Designers RT@SneakerNews What’s more impactful for adidas: hiring designers like Dolce or teaming up with artists like Kanye?
— Drew Barrymore (@inCOHEErent) adidas bape damian lillard
@SneakerNews Adidas Swim Trunks.
— des3 (@THEGOODKID333) adidas bape damian lillard
Is it more important that adidas bring on cultural figures known for their creative flair, or industry veterans who can help steer the ship in terms of footwear design? These two are putting their money on the designers, as Dolce, Dekovic, and Miner supernova offer more long-term prospects for the brand.
@sneakernews Lifestyle is fine with or without them. I would hope that they focus on basketball/running. That’s where they need the help.
— Andy Oliver (@AndyOliverWpg) adidas bape damian lillard
@SneakerNews @adidas Exactly, great design will always triumph over ‘celeb’ collabs. Those people will come and go, great design is timeless
— Anthony Judge (@Ant_Judge) adidas bape damian lillard
It interesting to imagine where this Dame of design talent that recently migrated from Nike to adidas might land. Andy Oliver hopes that they’ll be helping out on basketball and running rather than just in the lifestyle realm. Anthony here hopes that they’ll be able to whip up something timeless for adidas.
@SneakerNews adidas fw8112 superstar girls are awesome preschool lifestyle shoe white purple orange.
— Oliver Sømme (@oliversomme) adidas bape damian lillard
@SneakerNews kanye. Way more mainstream exposure that way
— Skip Baeless (@Kd0tRoss) adidas bape damian lillard
There’s no denying the power of Kanye though. It’s true that a cosign from Yeezus would mean a lot more to the general public than one from any of the designers mentioned in the previous pages. We’ll have to wait and see who plays a bigger part in sculpting the future of adidas.
