adidas Reveals the Key Strategies for Staying Ahead of Nike & Under Armour

adidas has been in an advantageous position ahead of its competitors — a recent earnings announcement by its parent company revealed an impressive 36% growth in North America. More importantly, the “Originals” line, as well as its running and training selections, posted double-digit sales increases. As told to Business Insider by the Three Stripes’s North American head Mark King, he explains, “It’s that mixture, that coming together of performance and style that gives us an advantage over pretty much everybody we compete against.”

Furthermore, King describes the currently popular “athleisure” style as a “transformation” rather than a “trend.” “We are definitely going to benefit from that because we make not only performance products, but we make these style products that are right in the sweet spot of this [transformation],” he continues. As for Nike and Under Armour, they have been experiencing setbacks and sluggish growth. UA wants to be just as “fashionable” as adidas and Nike are scrambling to find solutions to make its basketball line click with today’s lifestyle consumers.

As for key strategies, according to King, he and the Three Stripes want to continue to stay “very connected to the consumer” and responding “with speed to bring products to the marketplace that are really relevant in the moment.” Just by examining adidas’s recent releases and partnerships with the likes of Rick Owens, Raf Simons and more importantly Kanye West, it’s as clear as day that the German-based footwear giant has a better understanding of what fashion-minded consumers want today. Now with the rise in popularity of Ultraboost models and NMDs, the industry can also see that the company’s future has more room for growth.

See a quick report of adidas’s first quarter earnings compared to Nike/Jordan below from renowned sneaker economy expert, Matt Powell.

Q1 US Nike/Jordan footwear -8%, lost 270 basis points in share to 52.2%. Adidas Q1 Footwear +84% share nearly doubled to 11%

— Matt Powell (@NPDMattPowell) May 6, 2017