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Adidas has claimed that demand for some of its shoes including the Gazelle and Samba models is so high it is delaying product launches to maintain the brand’s appeal as the German sportswear group reported better than expected quarterly sales.
Chief executive Bjørn Gulden said he was concerned that the market for the brand’s premium trainers could “overheat” if Adidas released updated versions of its Superstar model too soon and that the group would push back releasing these.
“We have four [models] that are now bestsellers with most retailers in most markets,” he said, describing the Superstar — originally launched as a basketball shoe in 1969 — as “the biggest shoe that Adidas has ever had”. He said the new range needed to be introduced at the right time. “We need to be disciplined.”
Demand for retro trainers and the Samba model in particular has soared in recent years. The shoes recently made headlines in the UK after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a jokey apology after he was photographed wearing a pair during an interview in Downing Street, with social media users accusing him of ruining the model’s street cred. Gulden told journalists on Tuesday that the brand had experienced “no impact” on sales after the debate about Sunak’s choice of shoes.
Gulden’s remarks came weeks after it was announced that Adidas would no longer sponsor the German national football team, putting an end to one of the longest-standing kit partnerships in sport after they were replaced by Nike.
Gulden suggested that Nike, in his view, overpaid when it won the bidding war to become the new main kit supplier from 2027. Referring to media reports claiming that Nike will pay more than €100mn a year to the DFB German football association, Gulden claimed that the reported sum significantly exceeded any other previous sponsorship deal, saying the price Nike seemed to be paying was “much, much higher” than what was agreed in comparable deals.
He said Adidas’s current contract with the DFB, which stands at €50mn a year, was already “the highest nominated contract in the whole industry”.
The DFB and Nike have previously declined to comment on the financial details of their partnership.
News of Nike’s sponsorship triggered a national outcry in Germany, with economy minister Robert Habeck saying he “could hardly imagine the German kit without the three stripes”, calling it “a piece of German identity”. Bavaria’s prime minister Markus Söder lashed out at the DFB, saying that Germany’s football should not be at the mercy of “global corporate battles”.
Gulden said he was “not annoyed at all” that Adidas lost the sponsorship deal, which it had held since 1950. “They are allowed to sign high contracts,” he said referring to its larger US rival, adding that it was “a rational decision” for Adidas not to match the offer. “We are a company that needs to balance costs and revenue.”
Gulden also said he did not expect that the bumper deal would lift prices for similar sponsorship deals with other partners, “only for Nike [as] we will not pay those prices”.
Strong Europe sales contributed to better than expected first-quarter results at Adidas, with sales adjusted for currency swings increasing 8 per cent year on year between January and March while operating profit rose more than fivefold to €336mn.
Adidas had already released some of its quarterly earnings earlier this month. Shares were down 1.6 per cent on Tuesday afternoon to €228.60.
