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- Beyoncé and Adidas are collaborating on a footwear and apparel line, as well as on relaunching Ivy Park.
- The collaboration could allow Adidas to target young female sneakerheads, as 22% of teen girls responding to Piper Jaffray’s most recent survey said they collect sneakers.
- Nike is also making major investments to win over women, with changes such as releasing more sneaker designs and athleisure offerings.
In an effort to win over female shoppers, Adidas is looking to Beyoncé.
Last week, the sports retailer announced a new partnership with Beyoncé, with plans to co-create new footwear and apparel that will run the gamut from performance- to lifestyle-focused items. Beyoncé is additionally planning to work with Adidas to relaunch her athleisure brand, Ivy Park.
The partnership is part of Adidas’ wider strategy to win over women. In 2018, Adidas launched the "She Breaks Barriers" campaign that advocated for wider media coverage of women’s sports.
With the Beyoncé deal, Adidas has the chance to win over not just women seeking athleisure, but also the growing market of female "sneakerheads."
According to the most recent version of Piper Jaffray’s biannual teen survey, 22% of all female teenage respondents said they collected sneakers or identified as "sneakerheads." That’s fewer than the percentage of male teen respondents who identified as sneakerheads, which came in at 31%.
With fewer female teen sneakerheads than male, there could be an opportunity for brands to tap into the market. Clothing was the top thing teen girls reported spending money on, while food was No. 1 for teen boys. And, while according to Piper Jaffray, the average teenage boy shops using Nike’s SNKRS app 39 times a year, the average teenage girls shops it 19 times a year.
Adidas has won over sneakerheads in recent years with its Yeezy collaboration with rapper Kanye West. As popular Adidas styles such as Stan Smith and the Superstar have fallen out of style, Adidas has said it plans to focus more on Yeezy, boosting the number of product launches to between 20 and 30 a year, up from two or three a few years ago.
A footwear collaboration with Beyoncé could be a similar hit, winning over a slightly different set of sneakerheads.
Adidas isn’t the only retailer trying to win over women, sneakerheads, and the cross-section of the two. Nike is making major investments in its women-centric offerings, with changes such as launching more sneaker designs and athleisure offerings.
"We want to help create the next wave of growth for women in sport and with a fully-dedicated women’s offense, we see an even healthier, long-term future for Nike," CEO Mark Parker said in a call with investors in March.
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Source: Business Insider – ktaylor@businessinsider.com (Kate Taylor)