Be Like Mike? Nope, Be Like Kanye: How adidas Reinvented Itself

The Court of Law and The Court of Public Opinion are two entirely different things. Sometimes it’s hard to draw the line in between the two, but they are completely different.

This perhaps is no better demonstrated in the sneaker community than with Kanye’s new track “Facts”, a diss track to all things Nike and Jordan (with the exception of those in his circle or camp who profit off the Swoosh or Jumpman).

On Friday, Matt Welty of COMPLEX published a piece outlining the real “facts” about whether or not “Yeezy, Yeezy, Yeezy just jumped over Jumpman.” or not. From a sales and numbers point of view, it is glaringly one sided in the favor of the Swoosh. But that of course is in the perspective of “The Court of Law”.

Everyone’s favorite “Sneaker Insider” Matt Powell (a man who, this author will agree, is quite opinionated, but finds him to be misunderstood) has always stated that in the grand scheme of things, the Sneakerhead population is not an accurate representation of those who buy sneakers. And let’s face it he’s right.

But for this exercise, we need to examine the Sneakerhead population, because in this exercise, they are “The Court of Public Opinion”.

The execs at Adidas saw the gaping hole in the numbers between themselves and Nike and had to reexamine a way in which they could reinvent themselves as a brand. Going after the elite athletes was just not cutting it.

So, what did they do? They looked at their brand from an entirely different perspective. How can we get our shoes seen by millions outside of fields of battle? The answer was simple. Music and Entertainment.

Those in the Entertainment industry are in the public eye more than our sports heroes. MTV, Awards shows, World Tours, Red Carpet affairs, reality television series. They were everywhere. If somehow they could target these guys, and put them in the 3 Stripes. Run DMC had already built the scaffold for such a template.

Enter Jon Wexler, Adidas’ Global Director of Entertainment and Influencer Marketing. A guy who had the vision to get guys like Pharrell, Kanye, Pusha T, Big Sean and more and put them into Adidas.

The Adidas Originals arm of the Three Stripes was the perfect avenue to outfit the top dogs in the Hip Hop game, and to allow them the opportunity to collaborate with the brand to create their own spin on classic silhouettes.

Was it a gamble? Sure. The only method that had worked up to date was to have elite athletes endorse athletic footwear. But the gamble paid off. Especially when Wexler got Kanye to come on board.

I was a product of the “Michael Jordan Effect”, essentially, whatever Jordan wore or endorsed, I bought. For 30+ years I was all Nike/Jordan Brand all the time. Why? Because it was what HE wore.

Adidas is now reaping the benefits of the same Michael Jordan Effect but with West. Kids are now switching up to Adidas because of him. Any shoe he’s seen wearing becomes an instant sell out.

And that’s not even the best of it all.

With Kanye, you get the entire Kardashian/Jenner family free of charge (well, that we know of). So now, beyond that brilliant move to get West, you also get 5 model-pretty young women with enormous followings on social media also wearing the product.

Genius if you ask me.

The saying always went, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” Adidas took that saying and is looking at it from the outside as if to say, “Well, we are going to make a move to beat you, but we’re going to do it in the way the current world operates.” The philosophy is similar to the way college basketball coaches have adjusted their recruiting philosophies to get more one and two year players vs the traditional four year player. Adjust to the times.

That’s exactly what Adidas is doing.

And while there is still an enormous gap between Nike and Adidas from a sales perspective, and a chance that there will always be a gap, Adidas’ numbers are growing and it has a direct correlation to the change in marketing philosophy.

The move to this marketing philosophy works because of the reasons I outlined above, and also because of social media. The artists have INCREDIBLE followings on social media: Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat. KickPoster’s study of 2015 in the sneaker game provided us with the empirical evidence which shows us that social media is a great influence as Adidas was the “Most Liked” brand.

While likes don’t always turn into dollars, it does take a person’s mind and sway it from one to the next. We’ve all bought shoes we’ve seen first on Instagram. I’m guilty of it.

But there is definitely an adjustment in the recipe of changing the game as to who is now more important to a brand, and how their importance is measured. It’s no longer 100% the industry of professional athletics. The world of entertainment is carving itself a serious niche in the sneaker industry because of its visibility and social media presence and you can thank Adidas for figuring that out and going with it.

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