adidas and Under Armour Are Experiencing Enormous Sales Growths, But Is It Enough to Catch Nike?
Big gains for the Three Stripes and Baltimore-based brand.
Sneakernomics expert Matt Powell recently broke down the current state of the U.S. athletic footwear business in his Forbes column. Powell points out that overall sales for the first third of the year were solid as dollar and unit sales saw growth in the low single digits. The classics category was the major driving factor for the increase at 25 percent with retro basketball dominated by the Jordan Brand and retro tennis belonging to adidas.
Perhaps the biggest piece of information to come out of the report is the overall sales numbers posted by both adidas and Under Armour. The Three Stripes experienced a 40% upward swing in sales, while the Baltimore-based performance brand climbed to 70%. Nike, Jordan and Converse still fared well, but didn’t reach the same numbers compared to these two major competitors. Furthermore, adidas is having a very healthy year as they’ve also reclaimed the number two spot in the U.S. sneaker market from Under Armour.
