Adidas "aims to increase its sales by 40 million pairs of sneakers annually," to more than a half-billion by '20, "largely by appealing to fashion-conscious teens and urban hipsters," according to Richard Weiss of BLOOMBERG. At "the heart of that effort: a decades-old shoe" named after Stan Smith, a retired tennis player who lives in South Carolina and has not won a major singles tournament since '80. The shoe is the Stan Smith, "a white-leather number with pale green accents," introduced in '71. Thanks to a "well-orchestrated promotional blitz, this unlikely hero has made one of the greatest comebacks in marketing history." As the brand revs up "an effort to catch Nike," adidas execs are "seeking to replicate parts of the campaign to stoke interest in other shoes." Adidas Senior VP, Brand Strategy & Business Development Arthur Hoeld said, "We wanted to position it anew with fashion designers and trendsetters. This is part of the concept -- to push boundaries, to experiment." As adidas was "planning the Stan Smith revival about five years ago, the shoe was still selling, though it was showing up more often at discount stores." The feeling around the company "was that the model had lost its mojo." Hoeld’s team "outlined a campaign designed to look grassroots but which was in fact choreographed from start to finish with a goal of making the shoes de rigueur." The first step "was counterintuitive:" adidas pulled the shoe from the market in '12, leaving customers "with the impression the move was permanent." By mid-'13, Stan Smiths "were almost impossible to find." Late that year, adidas "began shipping a new version to dozens of celebrities it had worked with, including singer A$AP Rocky, designer Alexander Wang, and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres." Adidas "struck gold" in Nov. '13, when French Vogue featured model Gisele Bündchen "sporting nothing but a pair of white socks -- and Stan Smiths." About the same time, adidas released a two-minute web video featuring actors and sports stars "waxing poetic" about the sneakers. Smith said in the clip, "People think I’m a shoe," then recalled that his son once asked, "Dad, did they name the shoe after you or you after the shoe?" (BLOOMBERG, 5/3).
