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Beyoncé has taken her talents to Adidas for the relaunch of her Ivy Park athleisure line. Additionally, Adidas said the music icon will be a “creative partner” for the brand. Adidas has been relying heavily on fashion and not so much on actual sports, during a time when urban culture continues to be sewn into corporate strategy. So there’s a lot at stake for Adidas in the sneaker race, as the culture around sports becomes almost more meaningful and profitable.
The Breakdown You Need to Know: Sneakers and fashion are industries that often rely on exclusivity and hype. CultureBanx previously reported Adidas has experienced a decline in sales and some people see their biggest problem isn’t about focusing on fashion over sports, but more so the marketing push behind them. This partnership with Beyoncé who wields 126 million Instagram followers, comes across as a strong influencer marketing move for Adidas. Valued at $1.07 billion, the influencer market is expected to more than double to $2.38 billion in 2019.
Beyoncé fully owns Ivy Park after she bought our British retail tycoon Philip Green, who has faced allegations of sexual harassment. Adidas shares were up nearly 1.5% after the Beyoncé partnership announcement. Also, the German sportswear company has been making strides in North America with sales up 16% in its most recent quarter, cutting into Nike’s grip on the U.S. market.
If we use the lines past performance at Nordstrom as an indicator of future success, Adidas could see e-commerce sales rise even higher. Slice Intelligence reported that in the Spring of 2016 Beyoncé’s Ivy Park was the top-selling brand on the site during the week of its launch. Ivy Park pushed ahead of Nike and purchasing power was eight times larger than the Beyond Yoga release.
Adidas Influencer Bet: Beyoncé will join Kanye West and Pharrell on the company’s roster, and it will be interesting to see if Adidas uses the same initial strategy for her line that they did with the Yeezy brand. The company started out by creating scarcity around the shoes, to create the hype and drive volume into that market, before starting to release more shoes.
