Adidas passes Jordan brand as 2nd-most popular sneaker; Nike on top

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...ordan-brand-2nd-most-popular-sneaker-nike-top

Adidas has passed the Jordan brand as the second-most popular sneaker in the United States, market tracking company NPD Group announced Monday.

"I've never seen a brand in the sneaker industry grow this fast," NPD sports industry analyst Matt Powell said.

From January through August of this year, Adidas had 11.3 percent of the U.S. market share by dollars. That was up from the 6.6 percent the brand had over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the Jordan brand essentially stayed steady, growing only from 9.4 percent to 9.5 percent year-to-date.

The leader in the marketplace, Jordan brand owner Nike, dropped from 39 percent of the market share for the first eight months of last year to 37 percent for the first eight months of 2017.

A declining player in the U.S. shoe game in 2015, with only 4 percent of the market, Adidas started to push out its CEO of 14 years, Herbert Hainer, in search of greater stability.

Over the next two years, Adidas grew steadily through its originals brand like Superstar and Stan Smith, its new Ultraboost line, and an endorsement deal with Kanye West to bring his Yeezy brand over from Nike.

"Kanye is often given credit for the rise, but his product offering is tiny," Powell said.

In the last two reported quarters, Adidas' overall U.S. sales growth went up 41 and 45 percent, while Nike, which has a significantly larger business, saw an increase of 3 percent in one quarter and none in the other. It hasn't helped that basketball shoe sales have slowed down across the board, although Nike has strength in basketball with LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving as endorsers.

"Nike's U.S. sales started declining around 'Back To School' in 2015, and it has been negative ever since," Powell said. "You have to believe at some point they're going to wake up."

Shares of Adidas are up 31.3 percent over the past year, while shares of Nike are down 3 percent.

 

Harden picked the group that's building upward momentum. I'm sure some of their sales numbers have to do with James Harden.

 

I'm not going to pretend I know everything about this situation, but I think that it's specifically talking about shoes.

ADIDAS STOCK IS CRUSHING NIKE AND UNDER ARMOUR AND IT’S NOT EVEN CLOSE
https://sneakernews.com/2017/03/08/adidas-nike-under-armour-2017-stocks/
adidas has been flourishing mightily over the last year all thanks to the success of their classic and new product. Stan Smiths and Superstars have been holding down the fort on the retro front, while dazzling new icons like the adidas Ultra Boost and NMD shoes have become fixtures in casual wear and the fastidious sneaker culture. While Kanye West’s name will never be mentioned by data analysts simply due to the lower production number of his shoes, the one known as Yeezy brought with him the droves of fans who are far more style-conscious than the average consumer. All this has led to adidas’ stock rising 67% over the last year, according to Yahoo! Finance (via @readdanwrite).

Meanwhile, Nike’s stock has remained relatively stagnant over the last twelve months, experiencing an overall 4% decrease since last March. However, the Swoosh brand remains optimistic because of the continuing success of its robust retro catalog and promising new innovations like the Vapormax and the self-lacing technology called E.A.R.L., which first surfaced with last year’s HyperAdapt 1.0.

Under Armour has failed to re-capture the success from 2015; they still remain a one-trick pony in Steph Curry, and right now their lone pillar is standing on shaky legs. Outside of the Curry line, there’s nothing to write home about (on the footwear front), and that notion is reflected in a shocking 57% decrease in stock value over the last year. Sad to say, but a Cavs-like comeback doesn’t seem to be in the stars.

Despite these numbers, Nike is still in the lead by a wide margin. As of today, Nike’s worth is at $93 Billion, which is more than double what adidas’ current worth is ($37.2 Billion). Under Armour is far behind at $7.9 Billion.

 

I said "some" homie. I'm just glad Harden joined up with a winner.