Adidas and Foot Locker Inc. on Tuesday announced they are elevating their strategic partnership to create a revolutionary initiative that re-envisions the future of creativity and speed.
The innovative go-to-market plan empowers consumers to help drive footwear creation and trends and is powered by Adidas Speedfactory USA and Germany. Beginning this month, Adidas and Foot Locker will co-create consumer-inspired Adidas Made For (AM4) shoes across the country at various cultural events and sport moments throughout the year.
The new initiative exemplifies the three strategic choices of Adidas’ business plan for Creating the New: Speed, Cities and Open Source, and utilizes Adidas’ industry-changing Speedfactory initiative to pilot a new era in footwear creation and speed to market. To help empower creative voices across the nation, Speedfactory uses a radically accelerated digital production process that can create limited runs of shoes with designs sourced from creators in local communities up to 36 times faster than industry standard production times.
“We’re working with Foot Locker to create incredible product for consumers and deliver it faster than ever before,” said Zion Armstrong, president of Adidas North America. “With its cutting-edge technology, Speedfactory is enabling us to reach this shared ambition. We’re excited to kick off this first-of-its-kind partnership with Foot Locker and co-create the future together.”
“We are excited about the endless product opportunities that our Adidas Speedfactory partnership unlocks,” said Andrew Gray, VP and Chief Merchandising Officer for Foot Locker, North America. “At Foot Locker we are focused on continuing to strengthen our connection to local communities. This initiative allows us to get closer to market and deliver products that are created from local and cultural insights to engage and excite our customers.”
The first Adidas x Foot Locker, Inc. concept will come to life with the AM4ATL collection of running shoes and cleats. Celebrating the different heritages and cultures of the players that make up a team, the design features a tie dye graphic of unified colors and represents an artistic expression of creators uniting to come together as one. The limited-edition AM4ATL shoes and cleats will make their official debut on some of the best pro football players in the game the week of Jan. 21 in Orlando, Fla. and will be available on Jan. 28 for $200 USD at Adidas.com. The limited-edition AM4ATL running shoes will be available on Jan. 28 for $200 USD online at Adidas.com, footlocker.com, champssports.com and eastbay.com, and in select Atlanta-area Foot Locker and Champs Sports stores.
Designed with a range of consumer benefits, including lightweight stability and a far more sustainable product, the Adidas Made For (AM4) series is the next step for the future of the industry. Speedfactory allows for the creation of state-of-the-art product, made for individual needs using athlete data. The AM4 project is in a constant BETA mode, with insights taken from consumers following each product launch used to shape future designs.
