How Adidas Changed Its Approach to Innovation & Then Starting Winning
Jennie Bell
Deputy Managing Editor
When Adolf “Adi” Dassler added screw-in studs to traditional football cleats, he became a national hero after the shoes helped West Germany win the 1954 World Cup.
And the founder’s innovative spirit continues to fuel the company as it marks its 75th anniversary.
“That principle still drives us from an innovation perspective,” said Marc Makowski, senior vice president of creative direction and innovation at Adidas, noting that Dassler’s mantra of “only the best for the athlete” drives Adidas’ design ethos.
Makowski admitted that in the past, the sports industry — including Adidas — has at times lost its way, getting carried away by new trends like 3D printing and wearable tech. But his teams have since rallied around their founding philosophy and are focused entirely on solving problems for athletes.
“Ultimately, we’re not here to promote a technology,” he said. “We’re here to promote a better sporting experience.”
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To accomplish that, Adidas turned to its roster of world-class partners. “Recently we had more than 30 of our top athletes staying with us, where it was about going deeper on that idea of driving running performance forward by finding the best energy return formula possible in that space,” Makowski said. The goal, he added, was to push past the limits of human performance.
Within running, its efforts have already borne fruit with its much-heralded super shoe, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1, which officially launched in September 2023. Since then, it has been on the winners’ podium of five of the six major marathons, smashing multiple course and world records along the way.
To create the shoe, Adidas gathered insights from elite runners Tigist Assefa, Peres Jepchirchir, Benson Kipruto and Amanal Petros during training and testing in Kenya and at its labs in Germany.
It used a similar method to create its first trail-running super shoe, the Terrex Agravic Speed Ultra, partnering with athletes such as ultrarunner Tom Evans.
Makowski said his team is also working to address the needs of different and underrepresented audiences, including women and seated athletes.
“If you work in our company, you’re somewhat driven by the amazing power that sport has got, so enabling more people to experience that is a great thing,” he said.
To that end, the brand brought its connected ball to the Women’s World Cup in Qatar last year. Through the data collected, the brand gained a deeper understanding of the game, especially how the female game might differ.
Then in April, Adidas introduced its first adaptive basketball collection. “We looked at seated athletes who have got completely different requirements when it comes to protection [and] also thermal regulation solutions,” said Makowski. It took a similarly inclusive approach with its team kits for the 2024 Summer Olympics, in which 86 percent of all competition, podium and village wear was designed with universal design principles for athletes with and without disabilities.
For its next game-changer, Makowski teased that within six months, Adidas could release its biggest performance-inspired lifestyle innovation in footwear. “There is something that is cooking and it is very interesting,” he said.
