Adidas is "setting out to change the mind of female customers" and catch up to Nike -- which, like Puma, "is also targeting women," according to Ricadela & Ross of BLOOMBERG. Research from Euromonitor Int'l has shown that Nike's 5.7% share of the $76B global market for women's shoes "is more than double" that of adidas, with Puma further down the list. Last month, adidas "appointed company veteran Nicole Vollebregt as its first global head of women's products." It is marketing women's garments that can "serve double duty for exercise or work, bringing out new women's shoe models and aired women-focused commercials on Sunday's Academy Awards telecast" about 60% of whose viewers are female. Vollebregt said, "If you look at where the growth in the industry in years to come is going to come from, it's going to come from women." She added that she is "focusing on young women who played sports in school and then tailed off without the benefit of teammates and coaches." Vollebregt: "This is a woman who sweats." Adidas is designing more sneakers, jackets and other garments "specifically for women's sports as part of a turnaround attempt after several years of mixed performance." The company expects revenue and operating profit "will rise at a double-digit rate this year following three years of uneven growth and scrapped profit targets." One challenge: "Puma and Nike are going after the same market." No. 1 sports brand Nike aims to double sales to women to $11B by '20 from $5.7B last year, and "produces six sneaker models for women that it says generate more" than $100M each in annual sales. Not to mention niche brands such as Lululemon, Sweaty Betty and Under Armour for clothing and Brooks and Asics for shoes. Market researcher NPD Group analyst Matt Powell said, "We have had a history in this industry of really under-serving women. The idea was you took a man's style and put some color and girly style on it and called it a women's shoe." Puma Global Dir of Strategy Nina Graf-Vlachy said, "Ten years ago women would go out to buy running shoes and it wasn't seen as that stylish. Now it's as fun as shopping for fashion" (BLOOMBERG, 3/1).
