{"id":569019,"date":"2026-07-31T17:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/569019\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T17:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:46:11","slug":"adidas-ceo-says-the-stan-smith-sneaker-is-set-for-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/569019\/","title":{"rendered":"Adidas CEO Says the Stan Smith Sneaker Is Set for Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter years of brand heat from its Samba sneaker and a recent focus on the Superstar, Adidas<\/a> chief executive officer Bj\u00f8rn Gulden is confident that its Stan Smith<\/a> silhouette is ready to return to the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the company\u2019s second quarter 2026 earnings call on Thursday, Gulden noted that with the return of tennis-inspired dressing, he expects the Stan Smith<\/a> sneaker to \u201cstart to grow again\u201d with many versions of the sneaker, including updates to the original, rolling out soon along with several activations with many different partners.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have big indications from fashion shows, from consumer groups, from research, that this direction is coming,\u201d the CEO told analysts on the call. \u201cAnd the initial sales of the product that we have in is also working very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, the shoe was everywhere throughout the recent menswear shows during Paris Fashion Week in June. Adidas<\/a> collaborator Willy Chavarria teased<\/a> two colorways of a forthcoming Stan Smith capsule during his spring\/summer 2027 show. One of which was worn by the designer \u2014 a white pair that features a green hairy suede heel tab and green rose detailing on the side of the upper \u2014 as he took his final bow. The tennis legend himself was also spotted at the show in a textured green suede colorway.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Willy<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Willy Chavarria Stan Smith in white.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd at Y-3\u2019s spring\/summer 2027 Paris show, the collection\u2019s footwear offering featured a series of reimagined takes on the Stan Smith sneaker. Here, the new Y-3 Stan Smith SQ silhouette subverts the shoe\u2019s timeless look with a more formal shape: most notably a square toe and a heel. Further seasonal permutations of the Stan Smith include the sleek Y-3 Stan Smith Lo Pro.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s more, Adidas took over a multi-\ufb02oor Parisian home for a two-day residency dedicated to the Stan Smith during men\u2019s fashion week<\/a>. The event explored the shoe\u2019s influence through the eyes of a group of artists and musicians.<\/p>\n

\n\tGulden explained on Thursday\u2019s call that when Stan Smith takes off, as it has in the past, it \u201cactually goes global,\u201d but is normally driven first by Europeans. \u201cThen it goes to Asia and then less of course to a certain target group in the U.S.,\u201d the CEO said. \u201cAlthough right now, ironically, the higher end in the U.S. has actually been very strong in demand for the shoe. And the triple white colorways, even the triple white Superstar, is doing very well. So the triple white look is definitely coming back globally, which is what we like with these kind of franchises.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAhead of the shoe\u2019s hopeful resurgence, Gulden reminded everyone on the call that Adidas took a lot of the Stan Smith stock out of the market as to make sure to prevent discounting of the silhouette. \u201cI feel that we have done the work in parallel with what we have done on all the other launches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"NEW<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tStan Smith attends the 35th Annual Footwear News Achievement Awards on November 30, 2021 in New York City.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images for Footwear News<\/p>\n

\n\tLaunched in 1972, the low-top sneaker was the first leather tennis shoe on the market. During development, it was originally named after French tennis player Robert Haillet, but Adidas rechristened it following Haillet\u2019s retirement, choosing then-tennis pro Smith as the new face.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1973, the first shoes featuring Smith\u2019s name were released, but that didn\u2019t mean Haillet\u2019s legacy was totally forgotten. For the next five years the shoe known as the \u2018Stan Smith \u2013 Haillet\u2019 would feature the name of both players on the tongue, as well as Smith\u2019s iconic image.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe shoe has since seen many surges in popularity<\/a>, including in 2001 when rapper Jay-Z mentioned the Stan Smith sneaker in one of his songs on his album \u201cThe Blueprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMore recently, the Adidas Stan Smith<\/a> had another major comeback, finding its way onto the feet of everyone from millennial hipsters to the fashion crowd. That widespread popularity, as well as a series of high-profile collaborations, earned the style the first FN Achievement Award for Shoe of the Year<\/a> in 2014.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Adidas,<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAdidas Velo Stan Smith sneaker.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdidas<\/p>\n

\n\tGulden\u2019s prediction for the Stan Smith comes at the same time the company reported a 14 percent sales growth in the second quarter<\/a> and a windfall from the recent World Cup. Between April and June this year, Adidas brought in 6.74 billion euros, its highest quarterly net sales ever. Additionally, the quarterly sales beat market expectations, which were set at 6.63 billion euros.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite all this, Adidas\u2019 shares still slid 11.5 percent to 161.25 euros in trading on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe market appears to have been spooked by Adidas\u2019 higher-than-expected marketing expenditures, which rose by 212 million euros for World Cup promotions, and then led to lower-than-expected operating profit, analysts from Deutsche Bank, Bernstein Research and the Royal Bank of Canada suggested on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Friday, shares for Adidas were down nearly 2 percent to 159.40 euros.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of brand heat from its Samba sneaker and a recent focus on the Superstar, Adidas chief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[43440,257477,146,85,46,245246],"class_list":["post-569019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-adidas","tag-adidas-stan-smith","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-stan-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}