On three strips: How adidas replaces Nike
Watching the number of new sports shoes that giants such as adidas and Nike produce during the season is a meditative and endless exercise: for example, on the site about street culture and fashion Hypebeast, news about sneakers appears every day and even every hour. The score is no longer in the tens, but the hundreds of new pairs that are being offered to us, and the main players in the market come to the fore in turn.
A couple of years ago, the most popular shoe was the sneakers of the American pensioners New Balance. Then everyone massively changed their shoes into Nike - the Air Max model quickly became a masthead and just as quickly turned out at all. The time has come to look for a new object of desire: the fashion for ugly and old school shoes, reminiscent of the 90s, is returning, and with it adidas, a brand that is undergoing another revival.
It would seem that the fashion on three strips remained deep in the past. Since then, adidas have given way to Nike in the list of the best sports brands on the planet in terms of sales, innovative technologies, and even the production capacity of the company. But the world is changing rapidly, and suddenly it turns out that adidas is becoming more fashionable in every sense.
Nike and adidas are innovative sports companies, but adidas has strong positions in street culture. Right now, when fashion is literally obsessed with the streets, adidas is in the spotlight. The turning point was the revival of the tennis model of the adidas Stan Smith sneaker, in which Phoebe Failo was spotted, after which more people in these sneakers got into the lens of street-style photographers even in conservative Paris than in New York. Hot on the heels of adidas released several interpretations of the model: with the Japanese Shigeki Fujishiro, with Raf Simons and not only.
In my opinion, everything is quite obvious. Nike attracts with its modernity - people there keep up with the times and the product turns out to be appropriate. Here and technological innovation, and a truly interesting design, and competently processed history. Nike is not afraid to try something really new and unusual, and therefore is always in the spotlight. Sneakers, which wear like socks, seen?
As for adidas, they now only deserve attention models of the line Originals. With modernity, the company has not been very well in recent years, but with eternity it has developed completely - a three-lane classic will always be interesting for those who are attracted by more technology and hyip to heritage and minimalism. Plus, the brand has a powerful Consortium series, in which the historical silhouettes are presented with new life, releasing them in current materials and updated form. Globally, these are two absolutely worthy each other brand. Honestly, I would not even compare them at the level of better / worse, because, oddly enough, they are just different. But if I had to seriously choose between Nike and adidas right now, I would choose ASICS.
On sports and street clothes adidas dog ate. The line of sports things with Stella McCartney is so successful and beautiful that she asks to be worn in the city. What makes adidas strikingly different from Nike and brings the brand closer to fashion and people is the direction of adidas Originals streetwear things. Today, in this direction, the brand reissues the models of past years and releases an atomic number of collaborations over the season, trying to please everyone, it seems (that, you see, it’s not easy). Sometimes it seems that the normcore and the trend for "ugly" shoes are generally the cunning machinations of adidas Originals. Training with three stripes and white socks with a logo suddenly began to wear not shamefully, but on the contrary, trendy. Ugly shoes and weird sneakers (look at the adidas Crazy model), rubber men's sandals for the soul - all this becomes the main shoe of the season, and the wildness of things is perceived with warmth. And although the same trend was set by Phoebe Failo, the idea, obviously, she spied on the streets of Brooklyn, where adidas Originals are beloved.
The most successful adidas Originals collaboration, of course, is the collection with Opening Ceremony, the brand and store of creative directors of Kenzo Carol Lim and Umberto Leon, with which adidas Originals have been cooperating for more than a year and are doing the right thing: every brand wins from the OC collaboration. Look at their successful collaboration with DKNY, which greatly benefited the second brand, and recall previous collections from Topshop, Dr. Martens, Timberland, Levi's, Uniqlo, Nike, MM6, Rodarte, Chloë Sevigny, Yves Salomon, M.I.A. - they all scattered like hot cakes. This season, adidas Originals x Opening Ceremony also included a separate line of taekwondo clothing, which returns interest to this trendy form of martial arts and looks so cool that many will want to wear it outside the gym. You can already see what the two brands are preparing for next season: the other day they presented a new ugly-beautiful shoes (not shoes, not shoes) from the next season, resembling a pair that Raf Simons made for adidas this season. Moreover, such a popular brand as adidas is not afraid to work with the most outrageous (Jeremy Scott) and conceptual (Raf Simons, Rick Owens, Yoji Yamamoto) designers, as well as with the Topshop mass market. By the way, artificial coats will appear in the adidas Originals collections in the fall.
The key markets for adidas today are Russia, Japan, Turkey, Brazil and a number of Latin American countries. For Japan, all conceptual stories are created. For Brazil (ridiculous, but this is really a giant market of football players and their fans), the brand together with The Farm Company has already released a special "Brazilian collaboration" for the FIFA World Cup - based on things with bright tropical prints. And Russia and Turkey, though young markets, are susceptible. In addition, here adidas love hotly, for a long time and, it seems, in any form. A little more and adidas will become like McDonalds - will be welcomed in any family.
After all, over the years, adidas was chosen by people close not only to the sport and the spirit of the streets, but also by musicians. Mark does not forget about it and reciprocates - M.I.A. is now in affectionate relationship with adidas. and Niki Minaj. Kanye West, Farrell Williams and Rita Ora are also preparing their collections for the brand, which we will see very soon. For those who are alien to the attention of stars, adidas begins to be friends with trendy young designers, we are especially looking forward to the collaboration of the brand with Mary Katranza.
What happens with Nike? Today, the brand is most interested in running and it seems that its designers adhere to the principle of "less is more". All new and re-released models of sneakers are extremely minimalistic: Nike Roshe Run Slip On, model Air Jordan Future Volt or woven sneakers. "Freaks" are present here, just look at the Nike Air Flightposite Knicks. Nike is still the most innovative sports company, its research laboratory is constantly working on completely new technologies, which are then used in the reprint of the cult models of sneakers. A striking example is the Air Max with a visible air bag.
Nike has several iconic models designed for sports, but quickly fascinated adherents of street culture. For example, this happened with the Air Max running shoes, which have become the symbol of a whole generation, or the Air Force basketball ones, which are symbolic of hip-hop culture. Nike are very selective about collaborations that should not obscure the main thing: sport is life. Running has a special place in the history of Nike, which is not surprising - the company was founded by university running coach Bill Bowerman and his best runner, Phil Knight. From the Nike collaborations, we collaborated with Ricardo Tisci (who, of course, himself is inspired by the streets), as well as the French: APC, and next season with the street brand Pigalle (see if the riots will cause the same riots as the Supreme Nike collection) . Nike continues to collaborate with Japanese artist Yuko Kanatani, who paints leggings and crop tops with acrylic paints in accordance with the curves of the female body.
Today, Nike is working to build community of people. He arranges exhibitions like "The Art & Science of Modern Football" in Singapore, opens running shops (for example, in Covent Garden in London) and running clubs where participants meet and get acquainted. Nike develops mobile apps that, again, introduce people to the Nike + community and help them train or run on their own. All this makes the company somewhat different from adidas: Nike turns shopping into a social experience (here you can recall the new Nike collaboration with the Liberty department store), and adidas appeal to mass cultural codes.
adidas is a European brand with more than half a century of history, which had a huge impact on the development of world sports. Few people know that, at one time, the adidas empire included a huge galaxy of manufacturers of goods for sports, much of which now exists independently, but owes much to the German brand. adidas position themselves as a traditional but relevant modern brand. Working with the richest heritage of its archive, the foundation of which was laid back in the 80s, the Germans also pay much attention to their third-party rulers. One can not but remember the mega-successful work adidas x Star Wars, the lineup with David Beckham, the amazing work of one of the most prominent Japanese designers, Kazuki Kuraishi, which he does for the brand every year in cooperation with his fellow countrymen Neighborhood, Alyasha, then Mark McNayri. adidas released joint collections with Burton, developing their premium lineup Blue, a limited edition Consortium series and, albeit a controversial, but very visible project with Jeremy Scott. This is a traditional European design, rich heritage and fresh look. Do not forget about how strong the position of the brand is here in Russia, where since the 80s the people's love for this brand has not been exhausted.
Nike is the shoe of the future, as the creators themselves say. Yes, and to doubt their words, to be honest, is not necessary. For the most part focused on running and basketball, the brand does not tire of investing budgets in technology development for its products. With a rich subcultural background, Nike firmly settled on the legs of many members of the subcultures, and their famous Air Max almost became a uniform for them. Comfortable and bright svushem sneakers have always been and will be popular, and the mega-casual rulers with Jordan, Kobe and LeBron, which have become essentially a separate brand, good and competent work within their Quickstrike and TierZero lines make sure that the race between them and adidas will never end.
Of course, this or that brand may be noticeable on the rise, when a significant part of people wears her sneakers. But, anyway, each monster of the industry has its loyal admirers, who prefer its products no matter what. And among them there are hardcore-admirers who under no circumstances put on other sneakers. Who is cooler: adidas or Nike? For me, the answer is obvious: no one. These brands are very difficult to compare with each other, since they are radically opposed, although they are eternal rivals for a place on people's feet. It seems to me that for the majority it is like the first favorite band. You listened to them at 13 - and you will listen at 50.