adidas Equipment logo

Since adidas re-launched the Equipment range as a part of Originals, we found ourselves thinking back to the creation of both adidas Equipment and adidas Originals back in the early 1990s. We are certain that neither Rob nor Peter could have imagined Equipment living under Originals one day, but it goes to prove what they created adhered to the principles they defined for the category, and for the brand as a whole. Today, we feel that the early Equipment range does truly fit as a part of adidas Originals.

Created around the same time, Equipment and Originals were opposite sides of the same coin, both following the idea that “sometimes the past is the future”, only in slightly different ways. Equipment was designed to return adidas to the principles of its founder Adi Dassler and create products that make athletes better, featuring only the essentials and nothing more. Originals took successful products of the past, updated them to be more comfortable, and sold them in volume to help carry the company during its turn around. Both concepts leaned heavily on the past to move adidas into the future. While they were both key pieces of a two pronged plan to help save a great brand, this is the story of adidas Equipment, so we will save the Originals story for another time.

adidas Equipment was created by Rob Strasser and Peter Moore, two former Nike guys looking for their next challenge who had been asked by then adidas CEO René C. Jäggi to help save the struggling brand. Once Rob and Peter went to Germany to pitch their idea for the Equipment range, everyone quickly realized it was about more than just products, it really was about defining foundational principles for the whole company. The design process, the marketing approach, the guiding philosophies created for Equipment made their way into all parts of the brand. As Peter later said, “The concept of Equipment was far more than just a product range. It was a philosophy, a comprehensive model, a road map that we were sure would get adidas out of the mess it was in by changing the mindset of the entire company.”

“It was time to cut out all the crap… and go back to doing what built the brand in the first place.”

Equipment would start with a small range of products meant to represent the best of adidas. It would evolve rather quickly into a driving force in reminding adidas who they were and returning the brand to glory.

Peter later noted, “Equipment gave adidas back its purpose and mission.” And that proved to be transformational for the brand.

In the following we dove into interviews and documents with Peter and other executives, and this is how they told the story of Equipment:

By 1989 adidas was almost bankrupt. There was one day, where the company did not know if they would be able to pay the salaries the next day. René C. Jäggi, former CEO of adidas got up early one day and took a piece of paper and wrote that unless adidas cracked the US, they would go under. But, who could help? Jäggi contacted John G. Horan, who ran the Sporting Goods Intelligence newsletter and arranged to meet him in Chicago where he asked him who were the top people at Nike that he could get to help. He said, you only need two. Strasser and Moore, who ran a small agency called Sports Inc. at that time. Horan arranged for Jäggi to meet with Rob and they talked for an hour. Rob said, adidas is a shitty brand, Phil Knight will destroy you. The next morning Rob came and knocked on Jäggi’s door. He said that if anyone could beat Nike, it was adidas.

This meeting between Jäggi and Strasser happened during the NSGA show in Chicago in 1989, and then Peter and Rob flew to Germany to meet the adidas executives on Sunday, October 8, 1989. The next morning they took them through the museum on the second floor of the adidas Headquarters building and Peter was like “wow!”. Peter was so impressed with what Adi Dassler had done, he thought Nike had done all that, but they hadn’t. Up until then, the waffle and the air bag were the only two things that Mr.Dassler did not do. He could see immediately that these guys knew what they were doing with athletes and footwear. They may not have known how to market them, but they certainly knew how to make better shoes. It truly stunned him and in his mind it solved their problem.

When they left, Jäggi said that he wanted them to come back with a proposal. And that’s all Rob needed. Peter wasn’t initially in favor of the deal, as adidas was always the enemy for him while working at Nike, but Rob was always very convincing.

To them the problem was obvious. It was a brand that did not know it was a brand. A lot had to do with when Adi Dassler passed, followed soon after by his son Horst, and adidas had simply lost their way. All we did, we went back and said, you need to get back to the museum, you need to create the next generation of shoes that fit in that museum. They were makers of high-performance athletic shoes, that’s what they do.

By December, with the relationship formed, Rob and Peter sent a fax to Jäggi:

“Something was written about Gorbachev the other day that reminded us of adidas and you: ‘No visionary ever has a blueprint. A visionary has a general notion of what the ideal future should look like and a very specific notion of what’s wrong with the present.’ We believe that adidas Equipment is the way to get from what the present is to what the future should be. The Plan we are working on now is a starting point on the march.

At this stage, the Plan does not have all the answers or even all the issues. The purpose of the Plan is to provide a platform for the arguments, decision-making and work that will make the dream into reality. See you next week.“

Rob and Peter came back to Germany with a black leather-bound folder containing the original Equipment concept. The first words started with:

“MISSION: To make adidas the leading sports brand in the world.”

Rob Strasser presenting to the adidas team.

Anyone who has worked with Peter in the past knows this is how he always started his presentations: This is the adidas brand and what it stands for. If you know that, you can translate every project from there.

Peter and Rob did their homework by analysing the past of adidas and diving into the principles of Adi Dassler, but also looked at the world at that time. “The climate is right:

1. Globally, adidas alone has built a network of subsidiaries, distributors and licensees that effectively reaches every significant market in the world.

2. In America, the adidas nightmare, retailers are tired of “giving all their money to three guys” (Nike, Reebok, LA Gear); consumers are ready for new products and a new message from a rejuvenated adidas.

3. Emotionally, adidas, as an international brand and a German company, will benefit from the new feeling of freedom, youth and enterprise emerging in the East.”

4. The world is changing.

People are tired of gimmicks, hype and inflated pricing. They want honest performance, quality and value. It’s true of consumers. And it’s true of retailers.

It’s time to get back to what is essential.

And the solution to the problem was a concept, called “adidas Equipment.

o The concept is adidas Equipment

o The concept is based upon the position of adidas as the equipment manager for the world. adidas Equipment will interpret sport in a modern way and say much more about adidas than “we make shoes and clothes”.

o adidas Equipment will be the best of adidas. The “best of adidas” will be defined by products developed and presented under a consistent philosophy of adidas Design and adidas Marketing.”

And these are the first adidas Design principles, Peter defined:

adidas DESIGN

1. Design by philosophy, not by committee.

2. Form follows function

3. Designed and engineered to meet the real needs of comfort, protection and performance of athletes.

A. Design to a target consumer

B. Developed by watching and listening to the athlete.

C. Design inspiration for each sport category should come from the geographical center of each sport.

4. Best is not defined by most. Challenge each category, each product and each feature – what does the athlete really need? Does the product really meet those needs = Have we gone too far? Have we gone far enough? Does each feature really make a difference to the consumer?

5. Wherever possible, adidas shoes and textiles should be designed to work with each other functionally and aesthetically.

6. A visual order to the products that draws attention to what it is about the product that is really important to the consumer.

A. Shape and color accentuate the most important product feature and the three stripes.

B. The three stripes should be functional whenever possible.

7. Designed to leave an impression. Each product should look like it belongs to adidas. People should know an adidas product when they see it, with or without a logo.

8. Capitalize on innovations. Do not innovate and stop, e.g. technical basketball/Top Ten; American football/151 stud; trekking category

9. Design and engineer products:

A. For quality and value not extravagance

B. That will give adidas a good profit margin.

10. Watch the details.

The marketing and communications strategy for Equipment was…

adidas MARKETING

1. Marketing by philosophy, not by committee.

2. Market to target consumers and target retailers.

A. Excite the consumer, serve the retailer

B. Know these people, their needs and where they’re going

3. Marketing means execution – bringing all the pieces of the business together at the right time to create an explosion in the marketplace.

- Concept

- Product

- Logistics

- Sales and customer service

- Communications

- Control

- Funding

4. Build upon strengths like:

A. Tradition of the brand

B. Tradition of quality

C. Tradition of equipping champion athletes and teams worldwide

D. German engineering

E. New Leadership

5. Strike with coordinated product package, message and launch

6. Control distribution to promote long-term profitability for adidas.

7. Capitalize on society trends and market conditions

A. A return to real – we want values in our lives and value in our products.

B. The changing definition of sport created by the rise of lifestyle activities alongside competitive sports.

8. Focus spending.

PRINCIPLES OF adidas EQUIPMENT

adidas Equipment will be developed from the philosophy of adidas Design and adidas Marketing.

1. adidas Equipment will interpret sport in a modern way.

2. adidas Equipment will redefine sport products for the 90’s in terms of need, style and value.

3. adidas Equipment will be built upon adidas’ best products. Adidas Equipment products will be identified by the principles of adidas Design, color, price, marketing and the new mark.

4. Target consumers who remember the glory days (men 25-45) or who jump on new things quickly (boys 12-18).

5. Launch with a unified message, a unified shoe, textile and accessory package

6. Compete in each sport category for which adidas has a significant opportunity for volume, profit and leadership.

A. Launched one to a category (e.g. there will be one basketball shoe, not a line of basketball shoes) or for a legitimate performance need (e.g. there will be a cushioned running shoe and a stability running shoe)

B. Introduce adventure, a new category that reflects a change in lifestyle, similar to the introduction of aerobics by Reebok or cross-training by Nike.

7. Think retail. Design into, but not for, quality volume retailers like the Footlocker group.

8. Control distribution in a disciplined manner to promote long term profitability for adidas and its retail customers.

9. Reach margin targets where we can make money. Price list margins: goals of 42 % shoes, 45 % textiles.

10. Within the worldwide launch of adidas Equipment, America offers the best opportunity for a return on the investment of marketing money:

A. A market that likes and quickly rewards new concepts with big numbers and Visibility.

B. In America, success with a concept leads to success for the brand as a whole (Air Jordan/Nike: Nike Air/Nike; Pump/Reebok).

C. Success in America can be leveraged in Europe and Japan, both in the marketplace and as a marketing model.

D. A market that knows adidas and wants to like it again.

E. A situation where the company doesn’t have a lot to lose in trying something new; in fact, something must happen soon in America or adidas should license the Market

F. An organization that is small enough to be focused and flexible; people mad enough to do something about losing.

COMMUNICATIONS

THE GOALS

1. To bring adidas Equipment to life in the marketplace, using all available weapons

2. To position the brand and create demand for the product

COMMUNICATIONS

A Communication Strategy for launching a new concept consists of Advertising, Public Relations, Promotions, Merchandising, and Trade

THE TONE

adidas communications must be direct, not clever; genuine, not contrived; original, not what worked for someone else; of the future, not the past; and authentic to sport.

And finally… the Equipment Mantra – the essence of this concept:

In every sport There is the essential.

What is needed to compete and win.

Equipment. The best of adidas.

Everything that is essential. And nothing that is not.

THE EQUIPMENT LOGO

When Peter came to Herzo and looked at the brand and the products, he could not understand why adidas never combined the strongest assets into one logo – the 3 Stripes and the adidas wordmark. And this is what he did for Equipment. Yes, he hated the trefoil, as this logo represented everything adidas stood for in the late 1980s. But Peter was also responsible for saving the trefoil – but this is a different story for another day.

“The adidas Equipment mark combines our history with the future. To symbolize this new concept, we have taken two familiar symbols from our heritage – the adidas name in its logo form and the famous three stripes. We have combined them with the word “Equipment” – an honest word for an honest brand.

The adidas Equipment name draws on the company’s half century heritage as the equipment manager of the world.

Why a new mark?

We need to show the world we have something new. A concept needs a symbol. The fact that everyone in the world knows the adidas name and recognizes the trademark is not enough; it may even hurt the introduction of the new concept. “adidas”, alone or in conjunction with the trefoil, has grown tired from carrying too much for too long in too many places. The old marks, as great as they have been, cannot spearhead a breakthrough. adidas needs a new message and a new symbol to show the world that the brand and the company are alive again. That message will bear a new but familiar mark – adidas Equipment.”

COLORS

This is Peter’s answer to the question: Why Equipment green?

“It is simple. In order to make this idea ‘Essentials’ and the idea of ‘All You Need and Nothing More’ really come across, we eliminated the conversation of color. You can only buy these shoes in these colors. No other color. And the company had been historically blue, but the blue was a miserable blue, it was this sort of muted - not the blue it’s been seen today, it was a very greyed out kind of blue, that just didn’t have any life to it. So I decided that let’s take a green - green, black and white, pretty athletic in terms of power. Pretty fresh, because of the green and let’s make the shoes in all those colors. Those are the colors you can use, and make apparel the same way. The conversation of color was the lack of color. You guys cannot use any other color. You cannot camouflage a bad thing with a lot of color. So it is only this.

This green comes from a Pantone Industrial book. And everybody hates it because they cannot mix it, they cannot match.

Of course there were many people in sales who said, you can never sell green. Green doesn’t sell. But it did!”

PRODUCTS

Designed to leave an impression. Each product should look like it belongs to adidas. People should know an adidas product when they see it, with or without a logo.

The Equipment products adidas will redefine sport products of the 90’s in terms of needs, style and value.

In a word: “honest”.

In a few words: “the best of adidas”.

The goal of adidas Equipment is simple and constant – to make the best products for sport. Each product is based on adidas’ fundamental principle of meeting the real needs of athletes all over the world in terms of performance, protection, comfort and quality.

The design principle is “form follows function” – the way a product looks is determined by what it does. Each detail has its functional significance and provides a real benefit to the consumer. There are no unnecessary fashion features or technical gimmicks. Nothing is added on to increase price or create a new look. Adidas Equipment concentrates on what is really essential.

With the Equipment products this is recognizable at first glance. There are no garish colors, no fashion fads. Black, white and green dominate this straightforward collection, in accordance with the newly developed Equipment logo.

Adidas launches Equipment at the Boston Marathon.

THE LAUNCH

Equipment was planned to be launched at the 1991 Boston Marathon – adidas long term partner. The mission was “To paint Boston green”. All volunteers wore green Equipment jackets. And the winner was adidas’ athlete Ibrahim Hussein…. wearing Equipment.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Adidas Equipment: A Look back

EQUIPMENT PART 2

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