November 2015
Published · Seeking Alpha
"James Harden Deal Can Bring Adidas Back To Relevance"
Adidas has just signed James Harden to a 13-year, $200M contract. The market is skeptical. I'm not. I make the case that the NBA endorsement strategy — focused on individuals over league deals — is smarter, and that the stock is being overlooked. Adidas is around $60. Nobody is talking about it.
Read on Seeking Alpha →
March 2016
Published · TheStreet
"Is James Harden's Massive $200 Million Contract With Adidas a Good Deal?"
Adidas stock is up over 40% since signing Harden. I revisit the thesis: the deal was right, the stock was undervalued, and Adidas has reclaimed the number two position behind Nike. The market is starting to catch on to what I was writing six months earlier.
Read on TheStreet →
July 2016
Published · Benzinga
"Adidas Is Finally Figuring Out The North American Market"
The full thesis lands. Adidas is growing faster than the US market. Nike is stumbling. The Yeezy Boost is the hottest shoe on StockX. Harden is in the MVP running. I document the cultural and financial inflection point — the moment Adidas becomes impossible to ignore.
Read on Benzinga →
August – September 2016
Nike Stumbles
Nike Posts Worst Performance In 6 Years. Jordan Brand Loses The No. 2 Spot.
Nike reports its worst earnings in six years. The Jordan brand — long the gold standard of sneaker scarcity — has been oversupplied. Adidas overtakes Jordan as the No. 2 selling shoe brand in the US. I begin covering the structural problem: Nike abandoned the scarcity model that made Jordan iconic, and the market is starting to punish them for it.
March 2017
Exclusive · Benzinga
"Exclusive: Adidas' Mark King Talks About The Company's Comeback, Turning The Corner In North America"
First exclusive interview with Mark King, President of Adidas North America. We talk about Harden, why they dropped the NBA deal in favor of individual endorsements, the brand's turnaround strategy, and why North America is finally moving. King had taken over after running TaylorMade — a golf connection I'd later follow at Callaway.
"We wanted to really be relevant in the U.S., relevant to the U.S. consumer. So we started to look at things differently." — Mark King
Read on Benzinga →
April 7, 2017
Published · Benzinga
"FutureCraft 4D: Adidas Launches First Mass-Market 3D Shoe"
Adidas announces the Futurecraft 4D — the world's first high-performance shoe with a midsole made using Digital Light Synthesis, in partnership with Silicon Valley's Carbon. I cover the launch and call it one of the most notable innovations in the shoe industry. 5,000 pairs to start, scaling to 100,000 by 2018. The implications go far beyond footwear — this is manufacturing being reinvented by technology.
"Ten people with 100 printers in 2,000 square feet can produce 12,000 shoes a month." — Carbon CEO, quoted in my reporting
Read on Benzinga →
May 2017
Published · Benzinga
"Mass Customization Is The Future Of Retail"
I zoom out from the Futurecraft 4D launch to make the bigger argument: this isn't just a shoe. 3D printing enables mass customization — the ability to make a product fitted to an individual's body at scale. Traditional shoe sizes may become obsolete. The brands that adapt will win. This is years before "personalization" becomes a retail buzzword.
Read on Benzinga →
September 2017
Published · Benzinga
"With Acquisition Rumors Swirling and Nike Declining, Footwear Retailers Must Act Quickly"
Nike's Consumer Direct Offense — its push to cut out retailers and go direct — poses an existential threat to Foot Locker and Finish Line, who get 71% of their sales from Nike. I cover the structural risk clearly: these retailers are dangerously overexposed to one brand that is actively trying to cut them out. This is years before Foot Locker's stock collapses.
Read on Benzinga →
November 8, 2017
Exclusive · Benzinga
"Exclusive: Adidas President Mark King Discusses Being At The Intersection Of Performance And Fashion"
Third exclusive with Mark King, ahead of Adidas earnings. The thesis I'd been tracking since 2015 is now industry gospel: Adidas wins because it merged performance and fashion while Nike was still treating them as separate categories. Adidas had grown 31% in North America in Q1. The stock had run dramatically. Three years of reporting, validated.
"At the intersection of performance and fashion is where we are today — and that is why we are winning." — Mark King
Read on Benzinga →
January 2018
Published · Benzinga
"In Sports Retail, Expect A Challenging Year"
I document the structural shift in sports retail: the industry has moved from aspiration to a race to the bottom on price. Nike and Under Armour, built on performance products, have missed the fashion-to-casual shift. Jordan has oversupplied the market and damaged its own cachet. I call for a challenging year for the sector. The doldrums would last several more years.
Read on Benzinga →
January 2019
Published · Benzinga
"The Adidas Yeezy Line Expansion Is Working…For Now"
Yeezy sales are up 500% in Q4 from expanded supply. But I flag the warning: Adidas may be falling into the same trap Nike did with Jordan — oversupplying a brand built on scarcity and killing the cachet that made it valuable. This is a business model risk hiding in plain sight.
"As we saw with Jordan, oversupply can hurt demand." — Matt Powell, NPD Group, quoted in my reporting
Read on Benzinga →
2019
Physical Presence · Nike HQ
Nike Investor Day — Covered On-Site at Nike World Headquarters
I travel to Beaverton, Oregon to cover Nike's investor day at their world headquarters campus. The company lays out its Consumer Direct Offense — the strategy I'd been flagging as a structural risk to Foot Locker and traditional retail since 2017. Being in the room gives me context no wire report can provide.
October 2022
Yeezy Terminated
Adidas Severs Ties With Kanye West Following Antisemitic Remarks
Adidas terminates the Yeezy partnership following Kanye West's public antisemitic statements. The partnership — worth an estimated $1.5B annually — collapses overnight. Adidas is left holding over $1B in unsold inventory. The brand I spent years covering as a turnaround story now faces its most serious crisis. The scarcity warning I wrote in January 2019 looks prescient in a different way than expected.
February 2023
Published · Benzinga
"Adidas CEO Says 2023 Will Be A Rebuilding Year, Projecting $1.3 Billion Loss On Yeezy Termination"
The financial fallout lands. Adidas projects a $1.3B loss from the Yeezy termination. The brand I covered from $60 to $340 is now in full rebuilding mode. I cover the earnings, the new CEO's plan, and what comes next for a company that built too much of its identity around a single volatile partner.
February 2025
Published · Benzinga
"Nike-Kim Kardashian Partnership Just 'One of a Dozen' Fixes The Brand Needs"
Nike announces NikeSKIMS. Stock jumps 6%. I put it in context: this is one fix in a long list. Nike stock is down 26%+ over the prior year. CEO Donahoe has been ousted. The DTC strategy I flagged in 2017 has officially failed. The scarcity model problems I covered in 2018 are now being addressed by a new CEO brought out of retirement. A decade of reporting comes full circle.
Read on Benzinga →