market share was still declining, but between 20-when Adidas ramped up production of Yeezy Boost sneakers-that number nearly doubled.Ĭoncepts, a sneaker shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts that’s both a boutique and a frequent collaborator with brands like Nike, Adidas, and New Balance, isn’t where local Boston Marathon runners go to shop. But this fact actually supports the claim that West’s own Boost shoes aided the tech’s mass adoption. So with Boost technology adorning each Yeezy 350 sold, it’s no wonder that the tech has spent the last three years trickling down from sneakers that kids sweat to get to ones even your uncle can pick up at the mall.Īnd here’s the kicker: West joined Adidas in late 2013-after the first Boost release-and didn’t issue his own sneaker until early 2015. More than two years after the first 350 dropped, Adidas released the gray Yeezy Boost 350 V2 “Beluga 2.0,” the most widely available Yeezy Boost to date, which reportedly sold upwards of 200,000 pairs upon its release. Design-wise the 350 feels like an extension of the Ultra Boost’s sock-like proposition, albeit a slightly more futuristic version. But it wouldn’t be farfetched to assume that many customers were willing to pay full price for the $180 style (which again as Kernan says is a big deal) because Kanye West wore them first.īeyond Adidas running shoes, West’s own line of sneakers-including the insanely popular low-top Adidas Yeezy Boost 350-all feature Adidas Boost in the soles save for the new Adidas Yeezy 500. And so we were all excited to see him wear it.” Kernan, meanwhile, specifically cites the Ultra Boost as the most successful Boost sneaker to date, in part because it has a profit margin “several hundred percent more” than other Adidas sneakers. The performance, the comfort, the sock-like feel. “What’s interesting is that Kanye picked up the shoes on his own for the same reasons anyone picks them up. By 2012, the company was testing prototype shoes with Boost.īarr cites West’s powerful connection with his fans as the reason he moves the needle, especially when it came to the Ultra Boost. We could not stop watching this video and imagined what we can do with that material: we could revolutionize the running industry with that material,” says Matthias Am, the Category Director of Global Running at Adidas. “We could not believe how higher the ball bounced back compared to EVA foams which were the standard material at that time. The first time Adidas saw Boost, it was via a small, tennis-sized ball that was used as a demo to show just how bouncy the material is. Later, BASF’s scientists realized the particles were useful when welded together with steam into one solid piece. At the time, it was nothing more than tiny little white particles the company called “energy capsules” (which basically look like squishy Tic-Tacs). BASF first developed what became Boost in 2007. What we know as Boost is actually made by a German chemical company called Badische Anilin & Soda-Fabrik (BASF for short), and the Three Stripes just pays BASF for the exclusive rights to this technology. Here’s the first thing to know about Adidas’s premier running shoe technology: it’s not actually made by Adidas. Five years after the first Adidas Energy Boost hit shelves, it’s worth breaking down how Boost, well, boosted Adidas to the top of the sneaker game. (So much so that we've started referring to Adidas's history in terms of B.B. But Adidas also owes much of its recent success to a white foam sole called Boost, which set a new standard in comfort and cool in the sneaker market. They also signed Kanye West, whose Yeezy line of sneakers pushed Adidas to the top of the hype conversation. In 2014, Adidas reissued its legendary Stan Smith tennis sneakers behind a massive marketing campaign, helping make them the coolest shoes among both fashion designers and brunch-going bros. What sparked the turnaround? A few things. On both mass market and limited-edition level, from Air Maxes to Air Yeezys, Nike looked unstoppable.Ī little over five years later, though, Adidas is not just more competitive than it was a half-decade ago from a financial standpoint-with reported increases in revenue and market share-but it’s also made up serious ground in innovation and style. Its market share of athletic footwear was hovering around 60 percent, and it had just introduced the most groundbreaking sneaker technology of the millenium in Flyknit, the godfather of knit upper running shoes. In the United States, Nike’s home base, the Swoosh was even more dominant. Nike's stiffest global competition, Adidas, wasn’t so much a distant second as an almost non-existent one. Back in 2012, if you asked anyone what the hottest sneaker brand in the world was and they didn’t immediately say Nike, you’d have thought they were either insane or lying.
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