adidas and VICE TV are coming together to celebrate our differences, break down barriers, and create a platform to elevate Black athletes’ voices. In honor of Juneteenth and our new documentary series, Running While Black, VICE Media group and adidas are coming together for an all-day event in New York City with the Black running community, and you’re invited.
Source: Running While Black
Juneteenth has been appropriated and the beauty in social media is that poor decisions like the “Wal-Mart Juneteenth Ice Cream and plates,” was nipped in the bud before it had a chance to become accepted as okay. Any Juneteenth event should always be given a side-eye especially when a retailer or brand is associated with the project. The U.S. is in a time where an entire demographic is unwilling to learn about the rich, albeit disturbing history of the nation. Tomorrow adidas and Vice will team up to highlight a group of runners in NYC. On June 18th a documentary will discuss various aspects of Black running communities in a post Ahmaud Arbery America.
The series is narrated by Jackie Joyner-Kersee. The first episode is embedded above. I could easily place this content in the film portion of this site and simply watch it to analyze if it is worth your time (it is), but the business aspect of utilizing Black culture is my goal in writing this post today. adidas in the U.S. plays second to Nike. Black people in general (and yes this is a generalization) are Nike fans. adidas has been making what appears to be surface efforts to capture the Black community:
- The business relationship with Kanye.
- Giving the basketball division to Jerry Lorenzo and moving it to Los Angeles.
- The signing of Black athletes to promote the brand.
- Doubling down on entertainers by signing Pharrell.
- Beyonce (that’s the sentence)
It’s apparent that adidas is catering to the culture. Behind the surface of the company is a constant struggle to keep and hire Black talent. There is an amazing person like Vicky L. Free, head of global marketing, that I can highlight, but as I wrote in 2018: For Nike, adidas and Many Brands, Diversity Appears to Place Gender Before Color – ARCH-USA. This isn’t an article to analyze diversity, but to overlook that aspect when the brand has made such a solid contribution to the dialogue around race on the weekend of Juneteenth would be wrong.
This post is about monitoring the moves being made by adidas from the outside. The company has been very proactive in making adjustments to their strategy while moving away from relying so heavily on the individual collaborative efforts that have driven the company over the last ten years. As the Three Stripes grew through the 2010s, the perception of how their growth happened is tied directly to individual people vs the brand. Lately, the brand is being highlighted. Collabs with Gucci and other luxury brands lead copy on sneaker blogs. Projects like this documentary with Vice, and sports events sponsored with Parley are being highlighted. It’s a very understated adjustment which could easily be overlooked but shouldn’t. I wanted to make sure I did my part to share this documentary series with Vice. I know that there is a commercial aspect, but I also know that adidas is choosing what is uncomfortable by creating this Running While Black series. It’s not on trend as it was in 2020. Episode 1 of this doc is important, and I hope you’ll watch, but keep in mind adidas’ internal hiring practices can be better along with the external push to highlight the culture.