More than sneakers: How technology has shaped the Adidas strategy

Tuesday, 18 April 2023

Adidas has heavily invested in artificial intelligence, machine learning and other tech to drive sales.

Forget being all about sneakers – Adidas could almost be considered a tech company because of how heavily involved it is in experimenting and deploying new and emerging technologies.

The company sells billions of dollars worth of shoes and sporting apparel each year. And Its digital product leader, Alexandra Popova, said digital tech was now at the forefront of its business strategies.

Popova is responsible for building the German multinational’s storytelling and personalisation channels.

She said smart technologies, such as analytics data science, were present in everything the company did, from design and product creation through to ecommerce and social media marketing.

* New research centre to lead the way in innovation

Alexandra Popova of Adidas says businesses shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with emerging technologies.

* Gap launches its first collection of NFTs

Computer scientist Popova is senior director of digital production personalisation, and said the business was focused on creating digital experiences and creating relationships with its customers beyond just making a sale.

It is something she will be discussing with fellow Adidas executive Constantine Gavryrok at Spark Lab and Semi Permanent’s Future State business event in Auckland next month.

Adidas has been involved with the All Blacks for many years.

The event will explore the driving forces behind technological innovation over the next five to seven years and discuss themes such as artificial learning and the future of digital transformation.

Popova said there was “a ton of innovation” that went into the creation of Adidas products.

“As a company we are taking on every digital trend that is out there and evaluating it on whether or not this is something we can use. We do this through pilots, hackathons, and we have our own data science team that specialises in building machine learning models. We do that by testing and playing with it.”

Adidas has recently renewed its partnership with Rugby NZ as the official apparel partner for the All Blacks, Māori All Blacks and Black Ferns, in a deal that is worth $10 million.

Popova said the sponsorship of the All Blacks was an example of how Adidas aimed to unlock a new level of customer engagement.

Constantine Gavryrok says personalisation is the key to driving future sales.

“The emotions, the sense of belonging that this sport brings to you whether you are an individual, athlete or attending a game or cheering for the team, that sense of belonging is such an amazing asset for us and we can only do it by creating these digital experiences in between the games or when people cannot attend the games, with a combination of data design and tech.”

Gavryrok, Adidas global director of digital experience design, said the company's relationships with customers were changing.

“For the last 70 years or more we’ve been selling sports products that were supposed to enhance you as an athlete, for the last 30 years we have already penetrated the lifestyle market, but going forward I think it is going to be much more paramount to develop relationships beyond transactions,” said Gavryrok.

“We are looking at how we bring value to customers not only with their running shoe but after that how we inspire them to exercise more and perform better, and ultimately how to bring communities together.”

Gavryrok said some consumers would want to be served online or buy through TikTok or livestreams, while others would prefer to buy in-store.

“It is about shifting from customer experience to total experience. That is the main trend that we are seeing and personalisation helps dramatically.

“Right now we may be targeting geographies or different categories such as running or training, in the future it is going to be specifically about personalisation and what the individual customer needs and expects.

“That will not only affect how we sell but how we make the products. Right now we rely on mass production, but by 10 years most likely products are going to be created specifically for you.”

Popova urged businesses to experiment with new technologies coming out of digital innovation.

“Digital innovation creates the perfect playground for testing new ideas; whether it’s testing a new idea of how you engage with your consumer, or a completely new tech like regenerative AI; get your hands dirty with it, even if you don’t think you’re tech-savvy, or you don’t think it is relevant for your business because convergence of these trends together and the impact on your business will definitely come to life within months or years – not decades because the pace of change is so high.”

The headline and introduction to this story have been amended to make clear that the statement that Adidas “could almost be considered a tech company” was the reporter’s observation, and was not a comment made by the Adidas staff who were interviewed.