Sam Handy, VP Design, adidas Running, said, “Boost is our great running midsole technology, providing the best in comfort and energy return in all conditions. We continue to evolve the material to create different cushioning experiences for different runners. For Ultraboost 19, we added 20% more Boost to a completely streamlined upper construction and Torsion design, giving runners more energy return in every stride. That comes with both a physical and emotional feeling of confidence you can only get with Boost.
I feel like I’m the only person asking the question, “Where is Lightstrike?” I have a funny feeling if you’re reading this your response is, “What is Lightstrike?” In my opinion that’s a problem.
Traditionally performance tech arrives in either running shoes or basketball shoes. That technology is eventually transitioned into other styles including lifestyle. Lightstrike arrived a year ago. I thought it was important because my sales of adidas have suffered in the last two years. While the industry is showing that adidas is still grabbing a share of the market, I think that the data on this is skewed and flawed because it fails to recognize that brands are actually growing in DTC.
What does this mean? The places where the data is generated can’t and doesn’t account for the brand’s own doors and the growth being experienced on the platforms of Nike, Puma and Under Armour. More important I’ve sat with urban retail chains and they’ve stated that they aren’t sharing their sales data with any companies. This means that chains with over 200 stores are missing from the equation.
I’ve written recently that Nike is innovating at a pace unmatched by any brand out there. This is why when I saw Lightstrike last year I expected to see a campaign for lifestyle products and training products from adidas. I haven’t seen anything and now The Three Stripes marketing team has dropped a celebration of “new” Boost. I’ve done three retail dives this week at a mall in Tupelo, Mississippi and here in Memphis. In each location at mainstream footwear stores adidas has been relegated to the back wall of the stores. Almost every product with and without Boost is on sale. In the last week via my own e-commerce I’ve sold 22 pair of adidas shoes. The average price I paid for those shoes was… there wasn’t an average price. I bought every pair for 34.99 plus tax, 39 bucks a pair. The resale value of the shoes averaged at 75 dollars per pair.
The UltraBoost 19 is a 180 dollar shoe. The previous versions of UltraBoost are still being made. They all have white soles because Boost can’t be dyed (it can be painted, but the bottom tends to still be white). Many of the models that three years ago garnered 250 dollars in resale are now on sale. If I’m honest there isn’t any brand heat around adidas except for Yeezy and the majority of growth for adidas is at the low end of sales. In one Footlocker I visited the display of adidas presents a stark reality. The brand has returned to the promotion of NMD with a Tokyo/Berlin pack that is in the front window with signage. Typically when merchandising takes place the shoes are at the front of the store near the signage. The NMDs are hidden at the rear of the store behind apparel (Footlocker is now promoting apparel in pockets with the footwear brand, which looks amazing…).
Which leads me back to my original question, “Where is Lightstrike?” Has adidas’ over-reliance on Boost created a stale product mix? Bounce didn’t exactly take off, but it is a very good cushioning system, that has been poorly marketed. It seems that Lightstrike hasn’t even been given the chance that Bounce has. I need a bit of help here from someone in the know. Where is Lightstrike?
