Adidas delay release of new products
February 6th 2008 08:34
Sources suggest that Adidas will delay the sale of their new spike range until 2009, after the Beijing Olympics.
The Demolisher series of sprint spike and the versatile Adistar range have been in circulation in various forms since 2004 and China looks set to be their swansong.
Many athletes with kit deals also wear the much coveted PowerSprint 2, a shoe that is only being made available to the public in 2008; three years after the professionals first got their hands on them.
The new 2009 range of shoes will be expected to last the full length of the next Olympic cycle, as far as London 2012.
The move mirrors major rival Nike and Asics who have in recent years elected to introduce different colour schemes to their existing spike range rather than a whole new product.
Mizuno on the other hand, possibly as a result of being an Asia based company have decided to roll out improved Olympic versions of their products.
Nike’s last major release was the 2005 Monsterfly with a modification of the Maxcat, the Powercat being worn by sponsored athletes such as Asafa Powell in 2005 and were made available to the public in 2006.
The move marks a break from the market saturation policy both shoe giants adopt for their soccer releases in the run up to major summer championships such as a World Cup or European competition like Euro 2008.
Reasons for this could be the proportionally smaller market there is for athletics spikes versus football boots or the success of a marketing strategy that maximises profits of each product before moving on to the next.
Time will if Adidas has been left in the blocks in the race for Beijing related profits.
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