It’s another step down the funnel for Adidas work the brand works their way back into the cycling market.
By: Pro Tour Cycling
While Adidas is no new face in the world of cycling having already been a part of huge race wins like the Tour de France with riders like Eddy Merckx and Jan Ulrich. Unfortunately the brand made it’s depart from cycling during the dark ages of the sport in 2005.
During the “peloton craze” of indoor fitness where we saw the in home fitness solution brand Peloton inject $500 million in marketing in just 2 years between 2018 and 2020 we saw the number of people interested in cycling increase dramatically. It seemed as though Adidas and Nike couldn’t help but get their hands in that pot as both mega brands launched indoor cycling shoes. However the launches seemed not for the passion of sport, but for the fear of missing out on decent size market share.
Adidas launched their very entry level indoor cycling shoe with absolutely no stiffness or real performance advantages over other shoes in the same price category in 2020. Now, two years later they’ve launched their next level up in the Parley, featuring plenty of key words like made from recycled plastic, and “composite” sole.
The design looks very similar to the DMT collection that is rapidly taking up market share in the road cycling shoe space, but certainly lacks any performance qualities that the DMT shoe brings to the table. The sole looks similar to specialized, which is also in line with the latest DMT model. However, the composite sole on the Adidas shoe is not carbon fiber, and isn’t nearly as stiff.
Overall it looks as though the mega brand has continued to work their way down the funnel of users transitioning from indoor spinners to an entry level outdoor cycling shoe. This happens to also be where much of the market has gone. The natural trajectory for those riding these indoor bikes is to start cycling outside, and it looks like Adidas is keen to be a part of that journey. Smart business move, however it’s a little disappointing to see the brand continue to neglect the professional sport side of the industry, the side which truly moves the audience and is the platform for innovation and product development.
From a pure performance perspective at £170 / €180 this shoe doesn’t stack up in quality to any of it’s competitors in this category. Anyone buying this shoe is paying for the logo, and definitely buying some pretty terrible specs for the price. Like their last model, any influencers seen promoting these Adidas shoes should be put into serious question of credibility. Yes, Adidas did contact us but until they get their act together and produce some high quality shoes, they won’t have our support in the road space. There’s just too much passion for performance involved at PTC to see a mega brand like Adidas scrape revenue off the top of other brands who invest in high end innovation and push the sport forward.
It’s important to understand that the small brands who invest in innovation make much of their revenue on these baseline products because of the R & D they’ve put into their highest end model.
Hypothetical scenario: Customer walks into a shop, and sees the $500 model, hears all the amazing technology from the sales person, falls in love with the brand, but only has $200 to spend, so buys the entry level model.
Adidas threatens this space for small brands who work to improve the quality of sport for the enthusiasts.
More details on the shoe available on the Adidas Website.