Where Are adidas in 2023? The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

On this day in 1949, after 25 years working with his brother Rudi Dassler (who founded PUMA the year prior), Adi Dassler registered the name ‘Adi Dassler adidas Sportschuhfabrik'. To celebrate Team Trefoil’s 74th birthday, we shined an ultraviolet light on the good, the bad, the ugly in 2023.

The Good: Blokecore

With the terracewear and blokecore trends continuing to kick goals in the sneaker industry, no other shoe was more primed to capitalise than the adidas Samba. A football Hall of Famer from the 1950s, the Samba has rose from the bench thanks to the perfect combination of clever collaborations, social media virality, and celebrity sightings (Bella Hadid, Emma Chamberlin, Frank Ocean, Jonah Hill and A$AP Rocky have all been snapped rocking the OG Samba colourways).

Kick-started by a rousing Wales Bonner collaboration in 2022 and timely follow-ups with  IRAK, Kith and Palace, adi sent the SEO machine into overdrive. The Samba is now seen on every street corner around the world. One of the most unexpected sneaker success stories in the past 12 months, expect a few more seismic Samba moments before this one hits the bench for a well-earned rest.

Look for the Gazelle and Spezial line to continue leveraging the eye-watering Samba hype.

The Good: Mamba Energy

adi’s basketball’s division has been wetter than Steph Curry’s jumper in 2023. Replete with heat from the Kobe Bryant archive, the release calendar includes a trio of Crazy 8s (a favourite here in SF HQ), the perpetually polarising Crazy 1, and brand new iterations like the James Harden Volume 7 and Crazy Infinity. Breathing new life into Mamba classics while adapting their current catalogue to introduce vintage elements, adi basketball understand exactly what hoops heads want right now: mamba energy.

The Good: Quality Control

adi’s QC team are leaps and bounds ahead of their traditional rivals. They deserve a vigorous pat on the back here.

The Good: Shell Power. Always and Forever.

Surely there’s another round of unadulterated shell power around the bend for adi. With the Yu-Gi-Oh!, KITH, Dime and Hello Kitty collaborations powering up the shell-toe’s infinite fanbase, it looks like adi are well and truly entering the seeding phase. Let’s also not forget new tech like adiFOM introducing shiny new bells and whistles to the silhouette.

The Good: Jerry Lorenzo

Jerry Lorenzo is bringing some much needed designer heat to the adidas arsenal. In April 2023, Lorenzo’s Fear of God imprint debuted their 8th collection at the Hollywood Bowl, and the upcoming FoG x adidas The One was front and centre. But how long do we have to wait until we lace them? This one’s taking longer than Blake Griffin’s jumpshot…

The Bad:Y-3 prices

It’s still the most avant-garde, boundary blasting, blessed brand in the adidas empire. But ain’t nobody paying those prices.

The Bad: Ivy Park is Deserted

Why couldn’t adidas and Beyonce make this work? Unfortunately, it appears that the numbers just didn’t stack up. A Wall Street Journal report indicated that Ivy Park produced weak sales, leaving adidas in the hole for around $200 million. In 2022, sales allegedly fell 50 per cent to about $40 million – much lower than the projected $250 million and a decrease from 2021’s sales, which sat at the $93 million mark.

The report also stated that ’in five of the last six Ivy Park releases, roughly half of the merchandise that was produced went unsold’. Despite the significant decrease in sales, Beyonce continued to receive $20 million annually in compensation for co-signing the collection.

The Bad: Slowpoke Superstar

Let’s get this straight: there’s nothing wrong with a brand diving in on meme culture and revealing their more playful side. As Shakespeare once said, ‘memes are the gateway to the sole.’ But when the release is 12 months late, it just looks corny. Three seconds on the World Wide Web is the equivalent to 35 centuries in the sneakersphere.

The Simpsons x adidas Superstar ‘Marge’ launched in November 2022. Once teased, fans were quick to mock-up some other fan favourites from Springfeld, including us. Of course, the classic Homer Simpson hedge meme also made an appearance. But if you’re going to bite user-generated content, you need to be a lot more nimble in manufacturing and lead-times.

The Ugly: The Yeezy Problem

adidas continue to roll out the remaining stock of their huge Yeezy inventory, the new batch of releases no doubt helping plug the financial hole left by the once world conquering Calabasas label.

As part of the inventory dump, adidas pledged to direct a portion of the sales to select organisations working to combat discrimination and hate. Furthermore, Yeezys sold in North America will also come with blue square pins tied to the #StandUpToJewishHate campaign.

The estimated value of the remaining Yeezy stock was $1.3 billion.

But the question remains: what happens once the Yeezy tap is turned off?