Adidas Shutters Digital Wearable Development Division

Adidas has long proven to be one of the most successful apparel companies in the world. Apparently, the company’s attempts to branch out into fitness technology didn’t achieve expected results. The “fitness wearables” division of Adidas is being shuttered. Along with the closing of the division goes a number of projects on the drawing board at the unit.

The unit handled the development of products such as fitness watches and footwear with built-in sensors. On the surface, the closing of the unit infers Adidas won’t be producing any more digital products. That absolutely is not the case. Adidas couldn’t divorce completely itself from the digital market even if sales figures were rock-bottom abysmal. Digital and technological sports apparel is too popular. Adidas would be greatly harming itself if it moved totally out of that market.

Adidas has other divisions working on digital products. Whether these other divisions experience upheavals or changes isn’t known at present. Likely, if any projects prove to be underperforming, then a shakeup would be unavoidable. Adidas needs its merchandise to be a hit with customers. Success, however, can be elusive especially in the highly-competitive and somewhat fickle world of consumer digital technology. Apple released a watch that turned out to be a failure. So, even the major tech giants deal with setbacks and disappointments.

Adidas has announced a new strategy. Instead of maintaining a “stand-alone digital sports organization,” the company has moved digital product development across different areas of the company. The reasons behind this decision can vary. One possible reason would be to give a wider range of executives, developers, scientists, and other employees a say in the development process. More minds at work could lead to more successful products and better sales. Still, Adidas has a lot of competition. Even a multibillion-dollar company deals with significant difficulty in such a landscape.