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Adidas Plans to Sell Struggling Reebok Brand

Adidas plans to sell or spin-off its underperforming Reebok brand. (Reuters)
Adidas plans to sell or spin-off its underperforming Reebok brand. (Reuters)
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Adidas Plans to Sell Struggling Reebok Brand

Adidas plans to sell or spin-off its underperforming Reebok brand. (Reuters)
Adidas plans to sell or spin-off its underperforming Reebok brand. (Reuters)

German sportswear maker Adidas AG plans to sell or spin-off its underperforming Reebok brand, 15 years after it bought the US fitness label to help compete with arch-rival Nike Inc.

Adidas said on Tuesday it had decided to begin a formal process aimed at divesting Reebok as part of a five-year strategy it plans to present on March 10, when the company will also publish 2020 results. It will report Reebok as a discontinued operation from the first quarter of 2021.

A banking source said the business could be worth around 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion).

“Reebok and Adidas will be able to significantly better realize their growth potential independently of each other,” Chief Executive Kasper Rorsted said in a statement.

The company bought Boston-based Reebok for $3.8 billion in 2006, but its sluggish performance led to repeated calls from investors to dispose of the brand.

In the meantime, Adidas managed to eat into Nike’s dominance in the United States with its core brand, helped by partnership with celebrities like Kanye West, Beyonce and Pharrell Williams.

After Rorsted took over as CEO in 2016, he launched a turnaround plan for Reebok, which helped it return to profitability, but its performance continued to lag that of the core Adidas brand and it was then hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reebok’s net sales fell 7% in the third quarter of 2020 to 403 million euros ($488 million), after falling as much as 44% the preceding quarter. In 2019, Adidas wrote down Reebok’s book value by nearly half, compared with 2018, to 842 million euros.

Options for Adidas include spinning Reebok off as a stand-alone public company, or selling the brand to private equity, another major sports retailer or a multibrand player like VF Corp.

Reebok’s recent collaborations with celebrities like Cardi B and a refreshed focus on women’s apparel have put the brand in a better place, analysts say.

Adidas said in November it was expecting a drop in overall sales for the end of 2020 as the reimposition of lockdowns in Europe offset a return to growth in China and strong demand for running gear and products designed by Beyonce.

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Fashion

Snoopy the Fashion Icon Celebrated in Paris Exhibition

A Snoopy figurine is displayed as part of the "Snoopy In Style" exhibition to mark the Peanuts comic strip's 75th anniversary in Paris, France, March 20, 2025. (Reuters)
A Snoopy figurine is displayed as part of the "Snoopy In Style" exhibition to mark the Peanuts comic strip's 75th anniversary in Paris, France, March 20, 2025. (Reuters)
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Snoopy the Fashion Icon Celebrated in Paris Exhibition

A Snoopy figurine is displayed as part of the "Snoopy In Style" exhibition to mark the Peanuts comic strip's 75th anniversary in Paris, France, March 20, 2025. (Reuters)
A Snoopy figurine is displayed as part of the "Snoopy In Style" exhibition to mark the Peanuts comic strip's 75th anniversary in Paris, France, March 20, 2025. (Reuters)

A new exhibition opened Saturday in Paris charting the emergence of Snoopy as a fashion icon, with the famed black-and-white beagle embraced by designers from streetwear brands to couture houses.

The show at the Hotel du Grand Veneur in the Marais neighborhood is part of the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts comic strip crew which were created by late American illustrator Charles Schulz.

It is the latest entry in a competitive but extremely well-attended field of fashion showcases in the French capital, with the Louvre ("Louvre Couture") and the Grand Palais ("Dolce & Gabbana") currently hosting packed-out exhibitions.

"Since we're celebrating our 75th anniversary this year, we thought it would be fun to celebrate the history that the brand has with fashion. And where else would you do that but in Paris?" said Melissa Menta from the Peanuts Worldwide company.

Entitled "Snoopy in Style" and running from March 22–April 5, the free show explains the intense care taken by Schulz to create simple, visually recognizable characters that would "bounce off the page".

Charlie Brown was initially drawn with just a plain white t-shirt before Schulz -- whose snappy dress sense is also celebrated in the show -- gave him his trademark sweater with a jagged stripe.

But the exhibition is at its most interesting in explaining how designer collaborations and merchandising -- long before they were fashionable -- helped turn a 1950s comic strip scribble into a global cultural phenomenon.

Nowadays, Snoopy is recognized by between 80-90 percent of people in the United States, Europe, Japan and even China, according to research by the Deloitte consultancy for the Peanuts company.

Much of the credit for Snoopy's journey from newspaper pages to mass-market clothing stores and fashion catwalks is given to Schulz's long-time merchandising collaborator Connie Boucher.

She came up with the idea of producing dolls of Snoopy and his sister Belle in the early 1980s which she then sent to fashion houses around the world, asking their designers to dress them.

"Isn't it amazing how the busy fashion celebrities wanted to take on the challenge of designing outfits for fuzzy characters with large ears and tails?" she is quoted as saying afterwards.

By 1982, there were enough dolls -- from Karl Lagerfeld, Fendi or long-time fan Jean-Charles de Castelbajac -- to put on a first travelling exhibition in US cities, London and Paris.

Many of them are on display in the most striking room of the Paris show that features dozens of dolls from this period and others from the present day.

Italian fashion house Valentino sent a contribution that sees Belle in a replica of a couture outfit that was showcased in Paris in January this year that includes 15 different fabrics.

"Designers wanted to include Snoopy because they realize the universal message that he carries," curator Sarah Andelman, founder of former Paris boutique Colette, told AFP.

Elsewhere, visitors get a sense of the global marketing and commercial power of the Snoopy figure which appears on Marc Jacobs trainers, Uniqlo t-shirts, Lacoste padded jackets, Gucci jeans, Vans shoes and more.

Licensing agreements come with strict conditions.

Keeping Charlie Brown's pet sidekick relevant to new generations so long after his first appearance on October 4, 1950, is a challenge for the Peanuts company.

The fashion collaborations achieve this, but help has also come from the internet where Schulz's 18,000 Peanuts strips are endlessly recycled.

Charles Schulz, who passed away in 2000, "would be amazed at how it has taken off on social media," his widow Jeannie Schulz told AFP.