Adidas Company’s Products in the Regional Market Segments
Adidas
Adi Dassler, the founder of Adidas, started as a baker in his mother’s wash kitchen. However, his real desire was to make sports shoes. Dassler founded Gebruder Dassler Schuhfabrik in 1924, which is currently known as Adidas in a small town in Germany (Adidas, n.d.). Dassler reassembled his business in 1949 by registering the Adi Dassler Adidas Sports Schuhfabrik in Herzogenaurach, Germany. In the same year, he patented a shoe model that later became renowned, the Adidas-3-Stripes. From its conception, Adidas has transcended sports and cultures and became one of the most known, reliable, and iconic brands in fashion and sports. Today, Adidas has a market capitalization of 55.262 billion, 54,722 full-time employees, and reported a revenue of 5.757 billion euros in the third quarter of 2021 (Adidas, 2021b). The current CEO driving the company towards its goals is known as Kasper Rorsted.
Adidas is a renowned global sports company with a worldwide market reach achieved through its effective strategic planning and innovation. Adidas AG works with its subsidiaries to design, manufacture, distribute, and market sports lifestyle and athletic products worldwide. The group employs a segmentation strategy, whereby it combines regional and product segmentation. Examples of the various segments include “Europe, Adidas golf, Runtastic, North America Adidas, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, North America Reebok, Emerging markets, Russia, and Other Centrally Managed Businesses” (Adidas, 2021b). The group offers apparel, footwear, and golf products, fitness equipment, bags, and balls. It has also partnered with famous athletes, celebrities, and football clubs to promote and market its products.
Categories of Products and Services Offered in Different Global Locations
Adidas sells its products through its retail outlets, e-commerce platforms, including an Adidas mobile phone application and website, wholesale distribution, and mono-branded franchise stores. The products are readily available on their outlets and other distribution channels identified above. Adidas has marked different global locations as their regional market segments whose sales, operation costs, assets, and other associated financial reporting items are recorded separately (Adidas, 2021d). The regional market segments are Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, Russia, Latin America, and emerging markets.
Europe Segment
The European segment consists of the market in European countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Ireland, Spain, and other countries in Europe. The European market generated net sales of 5.32 billion euros for the financial year ending 31st December 2020, coming second after the Asia-Pacific segment (Adidas, 2021d). The product categories offered include shoes, clothing, accessories, sports accessories, and gifts for men, women, and children of all ages (Adidas, 2021a). Adidas stores are strategically located in major cities and towns, giving the company a competitive advantage in terms of product distribution.
The shoe category consists of hiking shoes, football boots, winter shoes, flip-flops, running shoes, and golf shoes. The bestsellers in the clothing category consist of tracksuits, hoodies, pants, t-shirts, swimwear, leggings, jackets, loungewear, and winter clothes. Accessories include textile face cover, sunglasses, goggles, phone cases, headwear, watches, socks, and towels. The sports category includes golf, running, rugby, cycling, swimming, tennis, home training, and football-related products.
Asia-Pacific Segment
The Asia-Pacific segment comprises countries from the far east such as China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, and Thailand. Despite economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this segment is the best performing market, causing a decline in sales in 2020 (Adidas 2021d). It generated sales amounting to 6.546 billion euros in 2020. The most sought products in this segment are shoes, clothing, accessories, and sports accessories. The shoe category includes sneakers, training shoes, skating shoes, football boots, among other sports shoes. At the same time, the clothing consists of sweatshirts, hoodies, rain jackets, jerseys, yoga tights, polo shirts, and tracksuits. Accessories include bags, gloves, facemasks, balls, socks, and bottles.
North America and Latin America Segments
The North America and Latin America segments consist of the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Central America. The product categories found in stores around this region include shoes, clothing, and accessories (Adidas, 2021c). The most popular shoes categories are sneakers, soccer cleats and shoes, basketball shoes, sandals, workout shoes, golf shoes, tennis shoes, and running shoes. The clothing category products include hoodies, sweatshirts, underwear, tracksuits, socks, jerseys, shorts, and sports bras. The accessories category products found in the American market include hats, face covers, sunglasses, balls, backpacks, and water bottles.
Russia Segment
Adidas stores in Russia are located in different parts of Moscow and other cities. For example, several stores in Russia exist, such as Adidas originals in Moscow Oblast, Adidas Kids in Moscow Oblast, Adidas Originals in St Petersburg, Adidas Store in Krasnoyarsk, and many others across Russia. Like other Adidas stores worldwide, Russian stores also offer similar shoes, clothing, and accessories like European stores (Adidas, 2021a). They sell products for women, men, and children; however, some stores are only dedicated to children’s products.
Emerging Markets Segment
Adidas’ emerging markets segment consists of the gulf market and the African market. However, in Africa, Adidas only has stores in South Africa. They all offer similar products like other worldwide Adidas outlets (Adidas, 2021a). Other African nations acquire Adidas products through other supply chain channels. Examples of stores in South Africa are Adidas Atterbury in Pretoria, Adidas Woodmead in Sandton, and Adidas Centurion in Centurion, South Africa. Adidas also has several outlets in the Middle East, including Dubai, Sharjah, Doha, Kuwait, and Bahrain. Examples of stores are Adidas-DFC in Doha, Qatar, Adidas Originals Store in Dubai, UAE, and Adidas in Kuwait City, Kuwait.
Bibliography
Adidas, 2021a. Adidas Official Website UK: Sportswear. Adidas UK. Web.
Adidas, 2021b. Adidas performed well in a challenging environment during Q3 2021. adidas. Web.
Adidas, 2021c. Adidas Official Website US: Sporting goods. Adidas United States. Web.
Adidas, 2021d. Segmental Information. Adidas Annual Report 2020. Web.
Adidas (n.d.). History of Adidas. Adidas. Web.