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by Brendan Dunne
Back in 2010, the adidas group laid out a five-year plan to outgrow its competitor Nike dubbed Route 2015.
Time has run out on that plan and the brand is still behind the Swoosh. Not only that, it also lost its spot as the number 2 sportswear company in the U.S. to Under Armour. adidas CEO Herbert Hainer is the first to admit that the brand missed the goals the company set five years ago.
"It never feels good if you don’t reach all the goals that you had set out initially – neither in sport nor in business," Hainer wrote on his blog at the adidas Group website. The company's financial statements fell short of management's expectations for the past two quarters. adidas’s U.S. market share at retail fell to 7 percent in 2014 from roughly 18 percent in 2006.
"True athletes don’t retire just because they missed the world record," Hainer writes. "They take a moment to digest the disappointment...they get up, find out what went wrong and work on improving it."
Specifically, adidas plans to focus on speed of production to be closer to trends and expand its presence in key cities like New York and Los Angeles.
"We have learnt important lessons – both positive and negative – that we will now apply," Hainer wrote. "We are focused as never before and firmly set on capturing the opportunities which present themselves to us."
Hainer's contract as the brand's CEO is set to expire in 2017.
