Adidas’s New Gen Z, Fashion-Forward Line is its Biggest Launch in 50 Years

Adidas is adding a third label to its brand lineup. Sportswear, a fashion-forward line aimed at Gen Z, is the company’s first full collection launch in 50 years. Situated between Adidas Originals and Performance, the Sportswear line straddles sport and style, featuring items such as football jerseys, tracksuits and athletic dresses made from performance materials. Just don’t call it athleisure.

The term is slightly outdated, says Aimee Arana, Adidas’s general manager of Sportswear and Training, who prefers the term lifestyle brand. “We know that lifestyle is growing faster than performance. This collection allows Adidas to explore that opportunity and adapt to the changes we’re seeing in the market,” she says.

Sportswear has been in the works for 18 months and launches today with a campaign fronted by actor and star of the Wednesday series Jenna Ortega and South Korean football star Son Heung-min. Adidas is already a sportswear brand, Arana acknowledges, but the official Sportswear collection name resonated most readily with young customers, based on Adidas’s research on how they like to dress, she says.

Activewear has evolved since the pandemic, when comfort was king and we were dressing head to toe in sweats, says Kristen Classi-Zummo, apparel industry analyst at market research firm NPD. Since stepping out again, the blending of tailored, casual and active apparel continues. “Lounge has transformed into lifestyle, leading trends and fashion to have a bigger influence on active categories. Gen Z wants a bike short that they can wear to both the airport or to brunch, but they are also looking for it to keep them cool and stay in place. Performance elements, especially in more lifestyle apparel, can provide a solution,” she says.

This launch comes at an inflection point for Adidas. The company appointed former Puma CEO Björn Gulden as CEO in November 2022, shortly after closing its previously popular Yeezy sub-brand in October, which reduced its 2022 outlook, according to the company. Yeezy was popular with millennial and Gen Z consumers and was of the most-traded styles on sneaker resale platform StockX over the last two years. Adidas’s revenues grew 11 per cent to €6.4 billion in the third quarter of 2022. (Main competitor Nike’s sales grew 8 per cent over the same period, to approximately €12.4 billion).

This sportswear launch could help Adidas win Gen Z market share. Nike is consistently named as “Gen Z’s favourite brand”, according to the latest survey of over 14,000 US teens from research firm Piper Sandler. Sixty per cent of teens say Nike as their favourite footwear brand, versus 6 per cent for Adidas. While in apparel, Nike hit the top spot with 30 per cent of teens, followed by athleisure player Lululemon (6 per cent).

Nike already produces lifestyle apparel, and has created sold-out collaborations with fashion labels like Jacquemus and Stüssy over the last year. While challenger brands like Gymshark, Lululemon, Tala and Alo Yoga have gained market share for their matching sets and modular collections, worn in and out of the gym by Gen Z and touted by influencers on TikTok and Instagram.

Arana is confident that Sportswear will boost Adidas’s overall business by harnessing the opportunity among Gen Z and Gen Alpha. “We have ambitious targets for the new category and are confident it will resonate with the target audience, with new products and cross-business collabs already in the works,” she says. “I believe that Sportswear is poised to be the biggest collection in the portfolio.”

With its football-inspired aesthetic, Sportswear aligns with blokecore, the Gen Z trend that swept TikTok in 2022. “When designing the collection, we thought about how Gen Z likes to style blokecore with their everyday wear, whether they’re making a TikTok or if they are going shopping and hanging out with friends.” says Adidas’s Sportswear senior designer Jasmin Bynoe. “We want to stick to Adidas’s DNA and blend Performance and Originals elements, while evolving with the consumer and how they express themselves.”

Globally, sports-inspired apparel was valued at $88.5 billion in 2022 and set to outperform performance apparel (valued at $97.6 billion in 2022) by 2027, says Euromonitor analyst Marguerite LeRolland, driven by the largest apparel and footwear markets around the world including US, China and in Europe.

There will be seasonal Sportswear drops with refreshed product offerings, but Adidas wants to make sure all the designs are as comfortable and versatile as possible, rather than following micro-trends, Arana adds. “We’re seeing a shift towards a more mindful ‘capsule wardrobe’, and the Sportswear products are all staples that can be styled a bunch of different ways depending on the occasion or season. That’s one thing that sets us apart from other brands in the space.”
Post-Covid, consumers are looking for ways to simplify their lives (45 per cent global respondents), feel stylish (33 per cent), says LeRolland. Sixty per cent of global respondents quote “comfort” as the top purchase criterium for apparel, she adds, according to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer, Lifestyle Survey 2022.

The collection will feature a range of new sneaker models, taking elements from some of Adidas’s bestselling Performance shoes, from the Boost to the 4D. “Gen Alpha and Gen Z, they don’t know the Adidas classics. So for them it could be the Avryn that’s their iconic shoe, they might be saying, ‘remember when they did that with the Boost and switched it up?’.”

The sportswear design team are constantly observing Gen Z styling habits on social media, on research trips and in discussions with young athletes, to create pieces to suit their needs. For the Tiro tracksuit in this first collection, for example, there’s a double waistband on the trousers, to account for Gen Zs wearing their trousers lower on their hips, Bynoe says.

Looking ahead, Adidas is confident in Sportswear’s longevity. Arana says she and her teams are already planning the label up to Autumn/Winter 2024. “We have ambitious targets for Sportswear and are confident it will resonate with the target audience, with new products and cross-business collabs already in the works.”

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