Today, we are officially announcing our long-term partnership with Fear of God, led by owner and founder Jerry Lorenzo.
Source: ADIDAS AND FEAR OF GOD REIMAGINE THE FUTURE OF ADIDAS BASKETBALL
Yesterday adidas Basketball delivered a visual for their latest campaign. The title of the project is “Remember the Why”. The article above addresses the new ad. I initially assumed, looking at the aesthetic of the film and styling of the athlete featured in the spot, which ran during the Nets vs the 76ers game (sans James Harden on the floor), it was easy to assume that Lorenzo and the Fear of God team was behind the visual. They were not. After receiving contact from the PR team at Fear of God explaining that,
Los Angeles, CA, November 22, 2022 –– “Jerry Lorenzo and Fear of God are focused on the launch of our third pillar, Fear of God Athletics in partnership with adidas, which will debut the first half of 2023. The collection includes both performance and lifestyle footwear, as well as a complete athletic ready to wear offering. Jerry Lorenzo and the Fear of God team are not leading the adidas Basketball category from a creative or strategic perspective as previously announced in December 2020. For the past eighteen months, the two houses have been focused on the development of our collective partnership, Fear of God Athletics.
The latest campaign from adidas Basketball: Remember the Why, is not connected to what Fear of God and adidas are working on together.”
The above response from the team at Fear of God could be a general e-mail and statement, but it’s important to remember in April of 2021 adidas began moving their basketball operations from Portland to Los Angeles. This appeared to be a move rooted in the relationship with Fear of God. If Lorenzo isn’t leading the division as reported in 2020, is there a breakdown in the North American strategy? I’ve sent questions to the team at Fear of God to get a more detailed understanding of what’s happening, but there are correlative issues beyond adidas and Fear of God’s partnership.
Franklin Bracken, Foot Locker Executive, stated the following during the Q3 conference call Q&A when analyst Jay Sole asked how the Yeezy rebrand would possibly shape Foot Locker: “Yes, I think it’s probably a better question, honestly for the Adidas team, to be perfectly candid. But what I can tell you is we’ve got a full assortment of Adidas products, everything from boost to nomad to classic basketball and there’s a great partnership that they launched with Jerry Lorenzo and Fear of God, [it’s] holiday. So we’ll lean into and partner and continue to collaborate, tell great stories and plenty of other franchises across the Adidas brand.”
Foot Locker has already written down the 50 million dollars due to the loss of Yeezy, but it’s clear the retailer was going to lean heavily on the storytelling around Lorenzo’s Fear of God to capture the audience Yeezy once held. Now that Fear of God Athletics appears to be pushed back to 2023 with no clearly defined timeline. This leaves adidas as Foot Locker’s biggest supplier after Nike without a hyped product in the pipeline to bolster the relationship between adidas and Foot Locker. As I get a response to my questions for the team at Fear of God Athletics, I will update and share the information.