Sharing Case: How Adidas Succeeded In Breaking Through The Iron Curtain

How to enter a new market under the policy blockade at all levels?

Adidas has a successful example.

Prior to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Adidas launched a retro Soviet jersey with the words "USSR" (Soviet Union) and the national emblem of the Soviet Union.

As soon as the shirt was released, it caused a huge controversy, which led to a verbal war on twitter between the former Soviet Union member country Lithuania and the Russian Foreign Ministry: the Lithuanian foreign ministry accused Adidas of selling "imperial nostalgia is disgusting"; the Russian Foreign Ministry responded that during the Soviet era, Lithuania's "heroic success" in the sports field was worthy of pride, and With photos of Lithuanian basketball stars wearing Soviet jerseys.

Forced by the pressure of public opinion, not long after the launch, Adidas in its online shop off the shelf of this product.

People from different positions hold different views on the misappropriation of historical symbols by capital and brands. However, no matter how the title of the history book is divided into different pages, the close relationship between this "West German brand" and Russian sports has never been interrupted since more than 40 years ago. Today, if big data is used to depict a collective portrait of Russians, Adidas must be one of the labels.

Fate begins with a gift that seems to have no heart. As early as 1952, three years after Adolf ADI Dassler founded Adidas in West Germany, Emil Zatopek, a Czechoslovak distance runner, won three Olympic gold medals at the Helsinki Olympics in Adidas running shoes. The shoes were given to Zatopek by adidas for free. At that time, amateur sports rules did not allow brands to give athletes more financial support. With the Olympic stage, this "sponsorship" has made Adidas gain a certain degree of recognition.

Puma, founded by Rudolf Dassler, Adolf Dassler's brother, takes the same strategy. At the 1966 European track and Field Championships, puma not only used shoes, but also money to "lure" two East German track and field athletes. East German officials took puma as a negative case and denounced the "bribery" of Western capitalist companies.

In the 1970s, Adidas began to accelerate its activities in Eastern Europe. Athletes and officials in Eastern Europe appreciate the quality of professional competition products in West Germany, and the local government hopes to obtain foreign exchange income through Adidas sponsorship. The Romanian tennis star Ilie Nastase was one of the most famous Eastern European players sponsored by Adidas at the time. Elier is the first player in the world since ATP has its official world ranking. Like Stan Smith, he was promoted to the world by Adidas in the 1970s.

At this time, Adidas's ambition was not only to sponsor individual athletes in Eastern Europe, but also to cooperate with sports associations. In 1976, Adidas signed contracts with Soviet football, handball, track and field and ice hockey players.

The 1980 Moscow Summer Olympic Games became another stage of the game between the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union. In the tense confrontation, Adidas pushed the brand's popularity in the Soviet Union to an unprecedented height.

The Soviet Union sent troops and occupied Afghanistan in 1979, which aroused strong dissatisfaction of the international community. Then US President Jimmy Carter boycotted the Moscow Olympics and put pressure on his allies. A total of 65 countries boycotted the Olympic Games. Some western countries, such as Britain, France or Italy, did not participate in the boycott, but the number of athletes sent out was greatly reduced.

Adidas was in trouble when most of its sponsors announced that they would no longer participate in the Moscow Olympics. Of course, the most stable participating country is the Soviet Union, and Adidas decided to fight.

In the Soviet era, it was almost impossible to obtain goods made in the West. Due to the international situation, it was very difficult for the Soviet Union to attract international companies; in addition, the quality of substitutes manufactured by local factories in the Soviet Union simply did not meet the requirements. In 1975, the Ministry of light industry of the Soviet Union tried to produce denim made in Russia. It was found that the technology and production of the Soviet Union could not be compared with the quality and technology of the West. Obviously, it is more difficult to produce professional running shoes.

The Soviet side felt that the adidas proposal could be considered, but there were several conditions.

First, Adidas had to change its trademark three bars and produce clothes without labels, so that the West German brand would not appear in any Soviet athlete's image. How serious the ideological hostility was at that time can be seen from a popular saying, which is roughly translated as "those who wear Adidas will sell their motherland tomorrow". Secondly, the three bars on Adidas running shoes must be changed to "m", representing the host city of Moscow. In addition, Adidas had to produce equipment for the Olympic Games at home in the Soviet Union.

After the closing ceremony, Adidas left most of its footwear production facilities in the Soviet Union. Although the Soviet Union promised not to use any legacy assets and equipment, the moment the Olympic flame was extinguished, the production equipment was put into operation as expected.

After all, this was the beginning of the 1980s when the world was on the brink of doom. The war in Afghanistan was raging. The Soviet Union's massive "western-81" military exercise made western Europe shudder. Adidas, even if it wanted to sue for trademark infringement, would have no way to complain.

A few weeks later, low top, three bar, white and Blue Sneakers began to be produced and put on the market. The difference between the "fake ADI" and the real ADI was that the six letters on the back were changed to "Mockba" (Moscow).

In any case, the adidas brand became popular among the Soviets.

Before the invasion of consumerism in Russia, due to the influence of pirated Western TV programs, movies and sports broadcasting, ordinary people also experienced a stage of "foreign countries are better than domestic ones". Foreign brands have symbolic power, such as levis jeans and Adidas sneakers, which have been in high demand for a long time.

In the Soviet republics, the history of "fake ADI" goes hand in hand with the obsession with the brand - after the Olympics, factories in the southern Caucasus made fake ADI training shoes. In the 1990s, a large number of sportswear, jeans and leather goods produced by Turkey and China suddenly flooded into the brand-new capitalist market. The low price lowered the consumption threshold. Adidas sports jacket became a must-have item in the Russian wardrobe, even if the letters on it were spelled "Abbas".

After the fall of the Berlin wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Adidas's huge advantages first appeared. When other international brands want to enter these countries, adidas has many years of experience in government relations and marketing business, as well as a deep mass base.

Now, 40 years after the Moscow Olympic Games, Adidas is still the leader in the Russian sports equipment market, and its subsidiary Reebok has been in the third place since 2005. In 2012, Herbert Hainer, then Adidas CEO, said Russia was the company's fastest growing market, juxtaposing North America and China. According to Adidas's 2019 financial report, the revenue of the brand in the Russian market is still maintaining double-digit growth.

At present, the international relations situation is still one of the biggest uncertainties affecting the development of international brands in Russia. But it is certain that this Adidas cultural phenomenon is hard to find a second substitute in Russia.