Jordan's son to wear Nikes on Adidas team
Michael Jordan's son Marcus, a freshman guard at the University of Central Florida, wants to wear his dad's Nike Air Jordan sneakers. In Chemistry 101, that's probably fine. On the court, however, it's a problem, as Adidas has a six-year, $3 million contract with the university to outfit its athletes across all of its sports. "It's a level of importance with the Jordan Brand and my family," the player says. "It's no disrespect to Adidas. I have a high level of respect for adidas, but I'm going to be wearing Jordan shoes. I'm wearing the Adidas uniform and all my other UCF gear is Adidas, but the shoes are going to be Jordan Brand." According to the Associated Press, the university is working with Adidas to determine "how this unique set of circumstances will work for both parties." Given the inordinate amount of free publicity the "controversy" is generating for both brands, I'd say those circumstances are working just fine so far. UPDATE: It looks like Adidas is pulling its $3 million from UCF over the sneaker flap. Maybe Mike Sr. will step up to the line and foot the bill. If the school offers to rename its athletic center after MJ, the surly egomaniac might even be a sport and pony up $3 million per foot. Well, not Pony exactly... —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on October 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Adidas giving soccer the 'Heroes' treatment
To illustrate its hunt for the best soccer players on earth, Adidas has assembled some of the best comic artists on earth. Above is the newest installment in "The Ultimate Search," a Heroes-esque series narrated by French football legend Zinedine Zidane. Ad agency 180 in Amsterdam and its offspring agencies Riot and Detail commissioned three graphic novels for the ad series, featuring artwork by Jae Lee, Ryan Benjamin and J.G. Jones (whose comic was repurposed into the Web video about Liverpool's Steven Gerrard). Zidane's dream team also features Argentina's Lionel Messi, who didn't get his own comic book but still merited ads like the one below. This series has been running since May, and with seven more spots for Zidane to fill, you can bet Adidas will be dragging it out for many more months to come. By that point, it will probably have outlived its own inspiration. —Posted by David Griner
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Published on September 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Does Adidas not care about Melanie Oudin?
Melanie Oudin's success at the U.S. Open appears to have taken even her sponsor, Adidas, by surprise. The unheralded young American, who has reached the quarterfinals by defeating three highly ranked Russians in a row, has been getting extra attention for her funky yellow-and-pink Adidas sneakers, which she customized herself at the Mi Adidas site. It's a marketer's dream—she even put the word "Believe" on the shoe, where lesser mortals would have just put their name. But Adidas doesn't seem to be doing much to capitalize. The Mi Adidas homepage still shows Sam Querrey, the other young American whom Adidas invited to wear customized shoes for this Open. He lost on Saturday. (Oudin does front the women's section of the site, and the yellow-and-pink model is the default, so that's a start.) Meanwhile, over at the main Adidas Tennis site, there's no sign of Oudin at all. The focus there is on Ana Ivanovic, Dinara Safina and Caroline Wozniacki. Ivanovic and Safina both crashed out of the tournament already. Wozniacki, from Denmark, will play Oudin in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, and will be public enemy No. 1 for a day in New York. Sure, Oudin's success could be fleeting—all the more reason to move quickly. Adidas needs to step it up, or someone else might swoop in. As you can see below, it's awfully easy to whip up a quick Nike ad. UPDATE: An Adidas rep e-mailed. She says the Mi Adidas site was "in the process of being updated as you were posting." And indeed, Oudin is now on the homepage. —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Published on September 8, 2009 | Permalink
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Adidas's NBA stars finally make it to college
Here's a fun idea from Adidas. To celebrate March Madness, it's taking four of its endorsers who jumped straight from high-school basketball to the NBA and imagining them on the college teams of today: Kevin Garnett at UCLA, Dwight Howard at Kansas, Tracy McGrady at Louisville and Josh Smith at Pitt. See all four ads here. It would have been fun to see Kobe Bryant, another college dodger, in this kind of situation, though of course he's ex-Adidas and now shills for Nike. Via American Copywriter. |
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Published on March 12, 2009 | Permalink
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Adidas finds groove with Frankie Valli song
It's hard to imagine a hipper scene than the one portrayed in the latest TV ad for the Adidas Originals brand. The spot, celebrating Adidas's 60th anniversary, shows a rockin' house party crashed by, among others, Katy Perry, D.M.C. (of Run-D.M.C.), Russell Simmons, David Beckham and Method Man. Even harder to imagine: a more unlikely song for everyone to be grooving to. It's Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons' 1968 hit "Beggin' "—not the original, but a remix by Parisian producer Pilooski. Truth be told, it's catchy as hell and fits the commercial's retro/of-the-minute vibe perfectly. Kristian Manchester, creative director and partner of Sid Lee, the Montreal agency that created the ad, said the shop went through thousands of songs before finding this one. Originally, he says, they were looking for a Motown or Stax/Volt tune, but "every time you find a great song, someone would ask, 'Was that in a car ad?' " Only after committing to the track did Manchester find out it had been a huge club hit in Europe in the summer of 2007. Still, he's happy with the choice. "It had the right rhythm and tempo and was a little nostalgic," he says. "It felt like it was from a lost party." Fans take note: Adidas plans to offer seven different remixes of "Beggin' " on its Web site. |
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Published on November 26, 2008 | Permalink
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Adidas singing on the way back to school
—Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on August 8, 2008 | Permalink
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Adidas account director streaks for charity
Mark Schermers, account director on Adidas at ad agency 180 in Amsterdam, found a unique way to raise some money for charity—by streaking through the city in full view of the mayor and a Dutch TV station’s cameras. Hard to tell if he’s wearing sneakers, Adidas or otherwise. But it appears that impossible is wearing nothing. Adland has more. |
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Published on December 3, 2007 | Permalink
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Art is therapy for athletes in Adidas ads
Adidas has released a few teaser trailers, including the one above, for its new ad campaign, which breaks on Tuesday. Each spot shows an athlete painting or drawing while talking about the obstacles he or she has overcome. The spot here features NBA star Gilbert Arenas. Other athletes in the campaign include Jonah Lomu, Lionel Messi, Alyson Felix and David Beckham, who may not have had kidney disease but has overcome his own obstacles. See three more teaser spots after the jump. |
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Published on March 2, 2007 | Permalink
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Adidas shatters soccer players for new +F50 Tunit build-your-own shoe
—Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Published on April 11, 2006 | Permalink
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