Struggling brand reports turnaround quarter, offers to help high schools with Native American mascots.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Adidas reported a turnaround quarter on Thursday.
The brand saw a double-digit increase in its sales figures.
Roughly around the time Mark King was promoted to Adidas Group North America president in mid-2014, the sportswear company refocused on the U.S., a geography where it’s lost ground to rivals Nike and Under Armour.
In its most recent quarter, Nike sales in North America climbed 9 percent (excluding currency charges) to $3.9 billion. Under Armour’s increased 25 percent to $1 billion.
(SOURCE: Portland Business Journal)
Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer said in a news release: “Our relentless focus on the consumer is clearly paying off. The great momentum that Adidas and Reebok are enjoying across the globe proves that our products and marketing are resonating extremely well with the target audience, both in the lifestyle and the performance arena.”
The company also announced this week that it has offered its assistance to high schools with Native American mascots.
Adidas would provide design assistance to help schools transition away from offensive imagery.
Approximately 2,000 high schools in the U.S. use names that “cause concern for many tribal communities,” according to the company’s statement.
At the Tribal Nations Conference, Obama praised the effort by Adidas, and added that “a certain sports team in Washington might want to do that as well.”
(SOURCE: NPR)
The NFL team in Washington D.C., which has received a good deal of criticism in recent years, issued the following statement as a response:
“The hypocrisy of changing names at the high school level of play and continuing to profit off of professional like-named teams is absurd. Adidas make hundreds of millions of dollars selling uniforms to teams like the Chicago Blackhawks and the Golden State Warriors, while profiting off sales of fan apparel for the Cleveland Indians, Florida State Seminoles, Atlanta Braves and many other like-named teams. It seems safe to say that Adidas’ next targets will be the biggest sports teams in the country, which won’t be very popular with their shareholders, team fans, or partner schools and organizations.”
