Adidas

Dick’s Sporting Goods’ acquisition of Foot Locker will have impacts on the rest of the industry, from brands such as Nike and Adidas to rival retailers like JD Sports.

The company’s new supershoe for elite runners, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 2, has arrived, and with a revamped running portfolio, Adidas aims to get more casual runners in its sneakers, too.

Just a few years ago, designer sneakers were an “it” item driving huge sales. Today the situation has changed, though they still have their place in luxury’s arsenal.

According to its annual report, Nike produced 50 percent of its footwear and 28 percent of its apparel in Vietnam in its 2024 fiscal year.

The women’s sneaker market is growing alongside rising interest in women’s sports and casualised dress codes that prioritise comfort. Yet there’s more to addressing female sneaker shoppers than just releasing another trendy low-profile silhouette.

Brands like Patagonia, Nike and Lululemon have been working for years to address the exploitation of migrant workers at key fabric suppliers in Taiwan. Despite some progress, the issue has persisted.

The collection, which will feature high-end reworkings of Adidas’ most iconic items, arrives as the brand’s archive helps to drive its global popularity.

With so many brands peddling new performance technologies, it can be hard for shoppers to understand what makes one product better than another. It's on brands to nail the right mix of form and function.

Brands of all sizes and statures can suddenly find themselves in costly, time-consuming legal disputes over what one expert calls their “primary corporate asset.” Knowing when to fight back is hard.

The deluge of sports-inspired product releases and collaborations between brands and sports teams or athletes has saturated the market and started to spur a backlash. But insiders say there is still room for tie-ups which go beyond simple logo swaps or licensing deals.