After a year of pumping trainers and runner silhouettes that look exactly like every other shoe the brand has made, adidas takes a hard left at the intersection and does something completely unexpected in dropping their latest series of shoes.
adidas pivoted back to basketball.
There is a constant admission by analysts that basketball sneakers aren’t selling and that performance footwear is down. I don’t have to rely on a report because in my own research and via my own sales channels I can tell you that every signature shoe released in the last year can be found below retail. That is in regard to Nike. If Nike is down, what do you think adidas is experiencing in their signature basketball sales with Harden, Lillard and Rose?
I guess I shouldn’t say that they pivoted. Earlier this year during NBA All Star Weekend I wrote a very detailed analysis of adidas’ making a claim that they were going to make basketball cool again:
Why Would adidas Move Towards Basketball After Letting the NBA Go?
In that report I explained in detail and even delivered a video of the adidas wall in a local store. This Born in Brooklyn launch of adidas basketball is peculiar for a few reasons:
- The models don’t have any professional athletes attached in the current promo. Gerald Green has worn the N3XT L3V3L… who are the people that decide to use 3s in the name to make it look cooler than it is?
- Without a professional athlete the hope is that the local approach focused on NYC athletes will generate enough attention. What this fails to do is actually introduce a true grassroots approach (something I’ve also discussed on this site).
- Introducing an entirely new basketball line tells me that there aren’t going to be any other signature athletes for adidas Basketball. This is basically a delivery of Team Bank sneakers for basketball. Which means that the brand missed the start of the high school and college season so a rollout of new styles at this moment is extremely ill-timed. (But this is a one day rollout on the 1st of December and then a later launch will take place).
- This launch undercuts the release of any signature models for Team adidas. If I’m a brand that has an MVP on the signature roster, a player leading one of the top ranked teams in the NBA right now, and a player with resurging All Star level career wouldn’t it make sense to spend my money there?
Even with all that is wrong, there is some good here. The shoes look incredible and they actually look much better than the flailing NMD and UltraBOOST models being released. What is most important here is that adidas is using this basketball rollout to transition from BOOST. Over the last 4 years BOOST has been instrumental in transforming the brand. The problem is that in a world where Nike dominates and has rolled out 4 different cushioning technology systems to push Nike back to the forefront, adidas has the same cushion as Puma. BOOST no longer drives engagement. I said that for adidas to adjust to the current downward trend that they would have to introduce new tech.
N3XT L3V3L is also the first shoe to feature LIGHTSTRIKE, a new super-light midsole that provides the perfect balance of lightweight cushioning and on-court responsiveness. Concepted from fundamental consumer insights and a true need for innovation, LIGHTSTRIKE gives players full movement support and improved step-in comfort without any extra weight. The new midsole was created exclusively by adidas Basketball, making it perfectly tuned for explosive movements, lateral quickness and the demands of the game.
The Lightstrike technology is the most important aspect of the roll out. It has also allowed adidas to create a new pricing structure that makes BOOST a basic cushion as opposed to the premium system requiring high end pricing which has killed adidas’ momentum.
“N3XT L3V3L ($180) Marquee Boost (Mid, $130 and Low, $120), and Pro Vision ($100) will be available for 24-hours on December 1 at adidas.com/basketball, with additional pairs of Marquee Boost and Pro Vision dropping on December 2.”
The adidas basketball releases featuring BOOST are the cheapest models the brand has released for Basketball featuring BOOST. When adidas used BOOST in the Lillard they bumped the price up. Here BOOST is 130 and 120 which signals that the Three Stripes realizes that Lightstrike could drive interest especially in a laceless basketball design. The problem is unlike Nike who continues to build a narrative around their releases from video, to detailed written long form posts, to interviews with the designer, adidas falls short and in doing so diminishes the potential of the drop. This disconnect between design and delivery is a problem that adidas really needs to fix. This is an important launch for the Three Stripes though, very important.