adidas yesterday hosted the global launch of Energy Boost, its latest running shoe technology, at a press conference at the Javits Center in N.Y. Boost features new cushioning material created by adidas partner BASF, a chemical company. The new sneakers will be available worldwide through e-commerce, select retailers and adidas Sports Performance stores. adidas America President Patrick Nilsson said, “The key to our marketing plan is to make sure that people try this product on. We believe that once you try it on, it’s going to be sold. It’s a transformational product.” Nilsson declined to comment on the marketing budget for Energy Boost promotion in America. Nilsson: “It will be seen and it will be known by the right people” (Christopher Botta, Staff Writer). In Portland, Allan Brettman notes adidas’ U.S. sales of running shoes “lags behind Asics, Brooks and New Balance,” and it “even trails” adidas-owned Reebok. But adidas execs believe that the Energy Boost running shoe “will be the game-changer the company needs.” The $150 shoes go on sale Nov. 27 “almost exclusively at specialty running stores.” adidas Chair & CEO Herbert Hainer said that if the Energy Boost “expands Adidas' share of the U.S. running market, Adidas America ... will play a key role in making that so.” Company execs said that adidas “plans to add the TPU ‘Boost’ midsole to other shoe styles.” They also “offered a glimpse of another shoe, to be unveiled in August, that features a sole with a series of inch-long, angled rubbery blades.” Meanwhile, Nike is “debuting an innovative running shoe of its own at retailers today.” The Nike Flyknit Lunar1+, featuring “a one-piece woven upper and a Lunarlon sole -- a product innovation that has been credited with $2 billion in annual sales since its introduction five years ago, will retail for $160” (Portland OREGONIAN, 2/14).
