Episode Transcript
Don Mock 0:21
Alright, Episode 10. Rob, we made it to double digits.
Rob Broadfoot 0:24
I know, it’s hard to believe.
Don Mock 0:25
That’s exciting. We’ll be double digits for a little while now. So, for today’s episode, I thought it might be interesting, instead of us babbling on about ourselves, and how fantastic and amazing and handsome we are. It’ll be interesting to pick a well known brand and talk about that brand and give our thoughts, our opinions, any funny anecdotes or personal experiences. Brand sometimes is defined as the generalized sum of all parts. Part of the Starbucks brand is the experience of being in Starbucks. It’s not necessarily just drinking the coffee itself. It’s not the logo on the cup, but it is the entire experience of Starbucks.
So, for today’s podcast, thought it might be interesting to pick a very well known global brand, Adidas. Adidas, been around for a long time and has their fingers or tendrils, dare I say, in a lot of different places, right? Obviously, mostly apparel, mostly footwear, but they do a little bit of everything from time to time. Branded merch and things like that. Sports, outfitting, uniforms, kids jerseys, things like that. So, Adidas, I think everyone is very familiar with that brand. So, I figured we’d start broad and talk about Adidas. What do you think?
Rob Broadfoot 1:41
Yeah, it’s an interesting brand, I think for a lot of different reasons. For me, growing up playing soccer as a kid, they’ve always made great soccer shoes. That’s always been my thing. So, I remember growing up, they had a shoe called, soccer cleat, called the Copa Mundial.
Don Mock 2:01
Okay.
Rob Broadfoot 2:01
I still wear to this day.
Don Mock 2:03
Nice.
Rob Broadfoot 2:03
In my old geezer league.
Don Mock 2:05
You’re still rocking the soccer player.
Rob Broadfoot 2:07
But, thinking of that, we were talking the other day about the story that’s been circulating online. Because, Pele, the great Brazilian soccer star, passed away recently, that sort of uncovered an old story.
Don Mock 2:23
Well, let me interrupt. They’ve also been in the news because of the lawsuit. Right? Well, they’re going back and forth on a lawsuit about brand and trademark.
Rob Broadfoot 2:29
There’s the lawsuit. There’s Ye.
Don Mock 2:32
I mean, they’re Adidas. They’re always in the news.
Rob Broadfoot 2:33
They’re always in the news.
Don Mock 2:34
Alright, tieing back in, sorry to interrupt.
Rob Broadfoot 2:36
No, all good. But, it was an interesting anecdote about Pele and Adidas and Puma. So the story, as I understand it, was, there were two brothers in Germany that started the shoe company together.
Don Mock 2:50
Okay.
Rob Broadfoot 2:50
And I don’t remember what the original name of the shoe company was. But, that’s not the important part. The important part is they didn’t get along so well.
Don Mock 2:56
Okay.
Rob Broadfoot 2:56
So, they each went their separate ways, and one of the brothers founded Adidas. The other brother founded Puma.
Don Mock 3:06
Okay. Interesting.
Rob Broadfoot 3:07
So, they were these competing brands, and they made a deal, when the World Cup came around in 1970, and Pele was playing in the World Cup. It was this big anticipated star of the Brazilian national team in the World Cup in 1970. So, the two brothers actually made a pact that it would be way too expensive, and that neither one of the companies was going to go out and solicit any sort of deal with Pele.
Don Mock 3:35
Okay.
Rob Broadfoot 3:35
A shoe deal with Pele. They weren’t going to do it. Brothers handshake. They weren’t going to do this. Well..
Don Mock 3:41
Interesting.
Rob Broadfoot 3:42
Somebody didn’t..
Don Mock 3:43
One of the brothers did not play by the rules.
Rob Broadfoot 3:46
Did not play by the rules.
Don Mock 3:46
Okay.
Rob Broadfoot 3:47
And what they did was. It was Puma. Puma went behind Adidas’ back.
Don Mock 3:53
Okay, interesting.
Rob Broadfoot 3:54
Went to Pele and said, we’re gonna pay you $127,000.
Don Mock 3:58
$127,000?
Rob Broadfoot 3:59
Not 127. Sorry, $120,000 in 1970.
Don Mock 4:04
Okay, 120 grand.
Rob Broadfoot 4:06
Which is a lot of money. We want you to wear our shoes in the match.
Don Mock 4:11
Okay.
Rob Broadfoot 4:11
But, what we need you to do is, right before, once you guys get on the field, and you’re standing in the circle about ready to kick off. I want you to look over the referee and tell him to hang on, and you’re gonna kneel down and tie both of your shoes.
Don Mock 4:25
Stop one second here, ref. I need to tie my shoes.
Rob Broadfoot 4:27
Exactly. Sure enough, and you can go back on YouTube and find the footage. It’s pretty interesting.
Don Mock 4:32
Hilarious.
Rob Broadfoot 4:32
But, then of course they paid a cameraman to zoom in on Pele tying his shoes at the beginning of the match.
Don Mock 4:40
Fantastic.
Rob Broadfoot 4:41
Wearing the Puma shoes. And, it’s a nice leisurely shoe time. It takes a little while. He’s very meticulous about the tying of the shoes.
Don Mock 4:48
Well he is Pele. I mean, he’s got to tie those shoes properly.
Rob Broadfoot 4:48
So, he ties the shoes and they get, however many seconds of airtime for this.
Don Mock 4:56
Basically free media time, even though they paid people off, right? What did we pay the cameraman? We have no idea what the cameraman took home.
Rob Broadfoot 5:02
Who knows, but it totally worked. I think the stories I read, it was Puma, had a biggest year ever in sales.
Don Mock 5:09
Of course they did.
Rob Broadfoot 5:10
Look it up, you can find the story and the whole thing, but that was pretty interesting. But that was kind of, the first instance, I know. You heard of Adidas sort of crossing over into pop culture or sports or something like that? Which I thought was kind of cool. Then of course, I think about the 80’s, and I think about Run DMC. They were head to toe Adidas.
Don Mock 5:32
Absolutely.
Rob Broadfoot 5:33
They had Reverend Run.
Don Mock 5:34
Basically sponsored by Adidas. To the point where I believe they wrote a song about Adidas, right?
Rob Broadfoot 5:39
My Adidas.
Don Mock 5:40
My Adidas. Yeah, absolutely.
Rob Broadfoot 5:42
That I think just further cemented that brand. I mean, that was MTV heyday where you had My Adidas and everybody rockin’ the fat laces and the Adidas shoes.
Don Mock 5:53
Well, you played soccer growing up, so obviously you have the tie to the performance footwear. I would say that My Adidas, consuming of the product, is mostly and just, sort of, leisure footwear, not an athletic.
Rob Broadfoot 6:06
But, you have them on now.
Don Mock 6:06
But, I’ve got Adidas on right now. I actually legitimately have on Adidas.
Rob Broadfoot 6:09
It’s true.
Don Mock 6:10
I love Adidas. They fit my feet way better than Nike, but that’s just a personal thing. No one’s out here running 5K’s, or any marathons, or whatever. I’m just talking normal daily tennis..
Rob Broadfoot 6:21
Walk around shoes.
Don Mock 6:23
Sneakers. I don’t know why we call them tennis shoes. Because, do we play tennis? Tennis shoes are a thing versus sneakers. So, anyway, Adidas. But, I’ve got a lot of regular old Adidas. I don’t know what this model is. But, I’m more on the leisurely footwear..
Rob Broadfoot 6:40
Lifestyle.
Don Mock 6:40
Lifestyle, yeah. Although we had mentioned that we both love Atlanta United, have season tickets to Atlanta United, and most of MLS, I believe, is sponsored by Adidas. So, all of their apparel is Adidas.
Rob Broadfoot 6:51
Right.
Don Mock 6:52
So, all of our branded merchants and whatnot is Adidas.
Rob Broadfoot 6:55
I also remember too as a kid. I don’t know if you guys did this out in California where you were growing up, but as kids it was, Adidas. It was all day. I dream about sports. That was the acronym.
Don Mock 7:05
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 7:06
But, when we were 12 year old, 13 year old boys.
Don Mock 7:09
It became a little.
Rob Broadfoot 7:11
All day I dream about sex.
Don Mock 7:12
It went raunchy.
Rob Broadfoot 7:13
It went raunchy.
Don Mock 7:15
Well, that’s what 13 year olds dream about.
Rob Broadfoot 7:16
If the word sex is raunchy, I guess.
Don Mock 7:18
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 7:19
But, then that too. I mean.
Don Mock 7:21
Well, in the 80s, it was.
Rob Broadfoot 7:22
Yeah, but whoever would have seen that? It’s not like they thought to market that. It just became a thing, I think.
Don Mock 7:30
Well, there was no Internet back then. Clearly it happened here in the south, and then it made it all the way to San Francisco. So I mean, it definitely was a thing.
Rob Broadfoot 7:39
I’m sure there were some poignant debates about which it actually, it could be, all day I dream about surfing. Or skating.
Don Mock 7:47
I guess it could have been.
Rob Broadfoot 7:48
Or soccer.
Don Mock 7:48
I don’t think it was though. I think when you’re a 13 year old boy.
Rob Broadfoot 7:51
It was sex.
Don Mock 7:51
Yeah, exactly.
Rob Broadfoot 7:52
Definitely was.
Don Mock 7:52
Sex related.
Rob Broadfoot 7:53
It definitely was.
Don Mock 7:55
But, that’s not what we’re here to talk about in terms of, regards to Adidas. I think, from a performance brand, would you consider it? See, I come at it more from a leisure, as as I mentioned, right? But, I think of Nike and Under Armour maybe as more, selling the competition of spirit. More or the spirit of competition, excuse me, I said that backwards. More performance. I’m gonna go running. I’m gonna go training. That type of thing. I don’t know that I’d personally view Adidas as a high end performance, even though I literally just said they sponsor all of the professional soccer teams, you know?
Rob Broadfoot 8:32
Well, I think if you look at Nike, you’ve got all of the difference. You’ve got Nike running. You’ve got Nike skating, even.
Don Mock 8:40
Sure. Nike football. Nike hockey, all the stuff.
Rob Broadfoot 8:43
I think, when you think about Adidas, most people, at least in my brain, I think about tennis. I know Adidas is a big tennis component. Because he used to wear the short tennis shorts, short Adidas logo on it. Ivan Lendl era.
Don Mock 9:00
Yes. Can I hear a Boris Becker in there.
Rob Broadfoot 9:05
But for me, it’s always been soccer just because I’ve always played and followed along with soccer. They’ve always made very technically great soccer shoes. Although, I do have a pair of Adidas running sneakers, but they’re not what I would consider performance running shoes, like a Brooks, or go have them fitted.
Don Mock 9:24
Yeah, it’s an interesting brand. I don’t want to say, it is an upper echelon brand, no doubt about it. And it has been around for a number of years, as we’re just literally saying anecdotes about the 70’s, right? So, they’ve got tremendous runway and they are a global brand, obviously.
Rob Broadfoot 9:41
Yeah, for sure.
Don Mock 9:42
I can only speak from my little piece of how I interact with the brand. You’re obviously speaking from your side, but it does seem like that good ubiquitous middle of the road, a little bit for everyone, not necessarily specializing in anything again, that’s just me. You’re thinking about it more soccer specific. But, I think about it more of a active lifestyle brand versus specificity of sports maybe?
Rob Broadfoot 10:05
I think, if you think about it from obviously, their marketing initiatives globally are ginormous. But, then you think about a brand like that too, when they do, a tie in with with Yeezy or Ye or..
Don Mock 10:22
Whatever we’re calling it.
Rob Broadfoot 10:23
Whatever we’re calling him these days.
Don Mock 10:24
Kanye.
Rob Broadfoot 10:24
Kanye, right. You always think about partnerships like that, and it’s, I don’t want to say it’s, what could go wrong, because we all saw Lance Armstrong and Nike. That whole tie in.
Don Mock 10:35
Yeah, that went wrong.
Rob Broadfoot 10:36
But, it is interesting to see another example of a high end, big money sponsorship.
Don Mock 10:43
Yeah, global icon.
Rob Broadfoot 10:45
Partnership business deal. I mean, we’re talking, forget the marketing component. That’s just part of it. But, an actual business deal and to see that, in the case of Kanye, I mean, he implodes.
Don Mock 10:57
Yeah, and Adidas is keeping all that, and I believe they’re rebranding it, right? Isn’t that what it was?
Rob Broadfoot 11:03
I think so. I think there’s a lot of debate as to whether or not it will sell, what they’re going to keep. What do you do in that situation? Obviously, you want to distance yourself from that sort of person.
Don Mock 11:19
Well, that off shoot in partnership clearly is the opposite of the high performance that we’re discussing. That clearly is more of a fascist..
Rob Broadfoot 11:26
Lifestyle.
Don Mock 11:27
More of a lifestyle. Then tied to the Kanye brand, right? It is a very unique looking piece of footwear. Whether you think it’s ugly or not. It is definitely..
Rob Broadfoot 11:37
Oh it’s ugly.
Don Mock 11:38
It’s wacky looking, right? It’s a strange looking thing. But it attracts a certain audience because of the power of Kanye. So you know, if you’re Adidas, do you rebrand that and just brand it something else, even though everybody knows exactly where it came from? Can you keep the name? I don’t know.
Rob Broadfoot 11:55
Didn’t they say that Adidas lost like, here it is, Adidas says it expects to lose $246 million in profits by canceling that line.
Don Mock 12:05
Okay, so almost 250 million, they’re just writing off.
Rob Broadfoot 12:07
Almost a quarter of a billion dollars that they’re just writing off.
Don Mock 12:10
Wow.
Rob Broadfoot 12:10
Because he flipped out.
Don Mock 12:13
Well, you’ve already got the molds. You’ve already got the materials. You’ve already got everything designed. I would package that baby up and change the color and stick it back out there, right? And try to recoup some of that money.
Rob Broadfoot 12:24
Depends on what the..
Don Mock 12:25
Depends on the toxicity.
Rob Broadfoot 12:27
Depends on the paperwork. Who owns what.
Don Mock 12:28
Well, there is that. The temperature check on the toxicity of the icon that you’re tied to. You mentioned Lance Armstrong. He seemed to go pretty toxic, pretty quick.
Rob Broadfoot 12:30
Very quickly.
Don Mock 12:42
To the point where even LIVESTRONG, which may be part of the greatest part of his legacy. Not legacy, but his journey, in terms of raising so much money and doing legitimate good in the world.
Rob Broadfoot 12:53
Absolutely.
Don Mock 12:53
LIVESTRONG was we’re out like, you can’t, you’re off the board. You’re too toxic for this, you know? And obviously, him being a cancer survivor himself. So, that went pretty toxic, pretty quick.
Rob Broadfoot 13:09
Think about the strength of those brands. Both Nike and Adidas. Nike, that was a big deal at the time, but in hindsight, Nike’s fine.
Don Mock 13:19
Nike’s fine.
Rob Broadfoot 13:19
And Adidas is going to be fine.
Don Mock 13:21
Nike has, I want to say more runway with controversial type celebs, because they partner with so many atheletes.
Rob Broadfoot 13:30
So many atheletes.
Don Mock 13:31
You know what I mean? Some athletes pan out, some athletes don’t. I think about Colin Kaepernick as relates to Nike. And that’s a positive for some folks and a negative for some folks, right? I would say it’s more positive.
Rob Broadfoot 13:45
Probably more positive.
Don Mock 13:46
But, there is that backlash in the press, oh I’m burning this. But, there’s always the contrarians, right. I think it’s definitely worked out in favor of Nike in regards to that. But, I mean, just a lightning rod when you tie to, a sports or endorsement in general. I think Nike has been through maybe more of those sort of flare ups and downs. I’m less familiar with that happening with Adidas. I mean, Ye is very current. So, it’s in the news right now. That’s what we’re talking about. But, I can’t think of anybody else of Adidas. I’m sure there are. I’m just spacing right now.
Rob Broadfoot 14:20
Yeah, I don’t know. That certainly was their high profile partnership. But, I don’t know. I’m not sure which soccer stars that they partner with. I don’t know.
Don Mock 14:30
Anything else about Adidas. Again, I think about it as a fashion brand. I love the footwear. It’s super comfortable.
Rob Broadfoot 14:35
I love the logo.
Don Mock 14:36
I do love the logo.
Rob Broadfoot 14:37
I think it’s super cool.
Don Mock 14:38
The three stripes?
Rob Broadfoot 14:39
Yeah.
Don Mock 14:40
I like how they are Nike’ing it up too, and you’ll see more and more where they’re dumping the lowercase Adidas and it’s just the three stripes.
Rob Broadfoot 14:48
It’s reached that point.
Don Mock 14:49
Which I like.
Rob Broadfoot 14:50
It’s reached that point of recognizability for sure. Adidas. There you go.
Don Mock 14:56
Alright, two guys thoughts on Adidas.
Rob Broadfoot 14:58
That’s right. We’ll leave it there. Of course you can go find us on the interwebs, if you’re so inclined at mocktheagency.com, and then you can find us on the socials too @mocktheagency, and if you’re so inclined to leave us a review.
Don Mock 15:15
Yeah, five stars or more.
Rob Broadfoot 15:17
Glowing or otherwise, we take all feedback, or have any thoughts or ideas or topics you think might be interesting to chat about. We’ll do it. So until next time.
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