Tag Archives: adidas

Hazardous Chemicals Revealed In Children’s Clothing

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toptipskidsbathtimefunChildren’s clothing and shoes by brands including Disney, Burberry and adidas have been shown to contain hazardous chemicals which could pose risks to adults and children when released into the environment, as revealed in a study released today by Greenpeace East Asia. [1]

Tests were carried out on 82 items sold by leading clothing brands including adidas, American Apparel, C&A, GAP, H&M, Li-Ning, Nike, Primark, Puma and Uniqlo and the findings revealed in the the report entitled “A Little Story About the Monsters in Your Closet”.

Chih An Lee, Toxics Campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia said:.

“As the starting point of the global clothing supply chain, the world needs to be aware of the dangerous corners being cut in manufacturing processes in regions like East Asia. Parents in particular should know the risks these brands are posing to future generations as they use and release these toxic hazardous monsters into our environment.”

More than half of the products tested contained nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), a group of chemicals that break down in the environment to form toxic, hormone disrupting nonylphenol (NP). High levels were found in products made by brands including Burberry, Disney and American Apparel. Meanwhile, every item tested specifically for per / polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs) was found to contain one or more examples from this group of chemicals. [2] For example, an adidas swimsuit contained the highly persistent, PFOA at a concentration higher than the brand’s own limit in its Restricted Substance List. [3]

Though all products tested were intended for children and infants – a group particularly vulnerable to exposure to hazardous chemicals in the environment [4] – there was no significant difference between the range and levels of hazardous chemicals found in this study and those in previous studies looking at adults clothes [5].

“We need the brands to take a good hard look at their supply chain and the monsters they are using to make our children’s clothing. We also need people to recognise the power they have in bringing about change, by joining the growing movement making the industry Detox its supply chain and clean out clothes”, said An Lee

China remains the world’s largest textile producer and chemicals consumer and Greenpeace is calling on the government to help stop the use of hazardous chemicals in the textile industry. It is critical they publish a chemical blacklist to be acted upon immediately and urge factories to disclose chemical information, in order to facilitate chemical elimination and supply chain transparency and create a level playing field for the industry.

 

Team GB starlet Jessica Ennis admits ‘I’d love to start my own fashion label

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Jessica Ennis has had quite a year, winning gold at the Olympics and becoming an idol for young girls everywhere. Now Jessica is branching out.

Speaking exclusively in City’s AM luxury magazine Bespoke, Olympic starlet Jessica Ennis said:

“I ADORE Victoria Beckham and Alexander McQueen…”

“I’d love to start my own fashion label…”

“I’ve been to two award ceremonies in the last two nights…”

You could be forgiven for thinking these were the words of a Hollywood starlet or seasoned pop star. But this is Jessica Ennis – the poster girl for the 2012 Olympics and contender for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, who, in the mind of the nation, wears lycra as a second skin.

Almost overnight she has become a focal point for the post-Olympics revival of Cool Britannia, as likely to be spotted in Stella McCartney as the new Adidas collection (which she is modelling the day City’s AM luxury magazine Bespoke caught up with her).

The change must be startling: one moment she’s a promising heptathlete, relatively unknown outside a group of loyal fans committed to the sport, the next, she’s an unexpected fashion darling.

So how is she enjoying the transition from tracksuits – and looking very good in them, mind you – to being dressed by some of the most sought after labels in the world? “It’s a brilliant position to be in,” she says. “It’s nice to have the option to pick and choose – it’s less stressful when you’re deciding what to wear.”

Her reinvention as a poster-girl has also given her design ambitions of her own and she confides that a collection is definitely on the horizon. “I would love to go down that road,” she says, “whether it’s collaborating with [a big sportswear brand] or doing the more fashiony side of things.”

With the amount of work coming her way, plus the prospects of further gold on the horizon, don’t expect Jessica Ennis, national treasure, unlikely fashion queen, to take her foot off the pedal for long.

Life of a Super Sports Blogger

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—Independent bloggers drive sports industry—Fortune 500 companies engage with the citizen journalists —

It’s the ultimate dream for many a football fan. Swapping the nine to five for a career spent posting on a blog about the sport you adore. No editorial limits, no suit, no boss. For Alan Spurgeon and his blog Footy-Boots.com, that dream is reality.

What started as a series of niche articles in 2006, Alan’s blog which focuses primarily on reviews of football apparel now reaches four million people worldwide, three hundred thousand of whom read his words on average every other day. It’s the sort of platform any of the major football brands would pay serious sums to control, but Footy-Boots.com remains independent, relying upon a small team of mostly volunteer staff and freely available publishing technology to engage the fans.

In a year which has seen every major sports brand jump on the social media bandwagon, Alan’s seen a shift in attitude when it comes to dealing with the marketing departments representing the kit he reviews—

“Our job is to review everything we can get hold of and when a product comes with an already established online fan-base that can explain the benefits in our terms, an invitation to meet the people who produce the product and a willingness to engage in feedback, there’s an obvious advantage. For years we struggled away ordering products as soon as we could get hold of them, crawling through the maze of PR departments to get comment or information and then taking the stuff to the field to run it through the paces before posting our opinion online. These days it’s a little different. Whilst we’re still just a couple of lads operating from their laptop, it’s not unusual for us to be invited to meet the people who produce the kit or to go down to the pitch to chat to the premiership players who are wearing it. The biggest names in the world like Nike, adidas and Puma have got used to the fact that if you want to sell your boots to a digital generation, it’s not just the print media and broadcasters you need to engage with celebrity endorsement, it’s the little guys like us. We need data and it’s in their interests to make sure we have it.”

Whilst the manufacturers are falling over themselves to accommodate the ‘super-bloggers’, some team brands have been better than others at adjusting to the social media era. Manchester United and Arsenal rule Facebook with 20million and 7million fans respectively. Arsenal in particular have embraced the digital revolution, recently hosting web chats for up to 2.5million international fans at a time. The players themselves are thrust into this world, somewhat dazed, to play their part. In May this year Rio Ferdinand posted on Twitter “Yesterday I’m signing a few autographs + a guy pulls out his phone + says ‘can you follow me’! A follow is the new autograph!”.

So what does it feel like being taken from your backroom office to the glorious highs of sports stardom? According to Alan, whose site is successful enough to “pay the bills”, some things will never change. “We are now considered de facto I guess in our niche, particularly for the Football Boot Awards we run every year where the public come to us to vote for the product of the year. That’s great and it’s astonishing of course to get to meet your heroes through your work as we have done when premiership players are lined up to take part in things like the awards sessions, but other things remain the same. We’ve not yet been able to get to some of the international product launches, not because of the cost, but because we’re a simple set up, a couple of guys and a few computers, we just wouldn’t be able to take the time for a long flight which would mean being offline for 9 or 12 or 24 hours. We miss out on that sort of stuff. We’re still geeks attached to our umbilical tech.” When asked if they would accept a private flight sponsored by a major sports brand, their reaction is typical of the new generation of citizen journalists— “No way, the fans of the blog would slaughter us. Our greatest asset is being unbiased. You can’t buy our opinion.”

Nobody at Footy-Boots.com has made a dot com million, but the site owners need an income. The key to success might be seen in the addition of sponsors and affiliates on the boy’s website which help to bring in stable financial support whilst they focus on reviewing kit and steering conversation in the forums. “We’re not salesmen, we never have been, never could be. We’re not good at going out there to find sponsors. I’m sure there are plenty of ways the site could make more money, but it’s never been about the money for us so we’re happy to just let a couple of sports shops link through the site as long as we get positive feedback about them. It’s a happy compromise between running a basic blog and being a commercial website.”

As someone who has tested every major boot released since 2006, Alan has a few pointers for those wanting to be on the Christmas list this year and next. “The best boot in the world is only good for one man. Reading our forums (especially the “ask geeks” channel), you know every player has their own strength, speed, accuracy, strength, ability and confidence to take risks on the pitch. No one cleat is going to fit them all. Just like social media has opened up a million different varieties of opinion, the manufacturers of the product are going to have to follow too. Bespoke might be the way to go. I’m sure the technology will exist to let players pick every aspect of their kit through an app very soon.” Which raises an interesting question- what will be the value of celebrity if and when every boot is customised not to the famous foot, but to every man or women on the pitch? There will be bigwigs in PR breathing a sigh of relief in some cases— we all know Football and Twitter don’t always a happy marriage make. Alan has a list of social media disasters on his site to tell that story.

So where next for Alan and his happy team of sports bloggers? “2011 was a great year, we saw some astonishing products hit the pitch and through our relationships with the brands, we felt like we were pretty much front row. We’ll continue to offer a space where your opinion matters and we’ll be bringing that to a climax with this year’s awards which launch online December 5th and we’re expecting tens of thousands of votes again.”

The one difference between this year and last for Footy-Boots.com, a 1765% rise in the number of visits originating from mobile phones. Let’s hope that Nike and co have their iPhone apps in order when voting kicks in.

Katy Perry and David Beckham Team Up For Adidas

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adidas is all in
adidas launches biggest marketing campaign in the brand’s history

Adidas has unveiled their latest global campaign, the biggest in the brands history, with the launch of ‘all adidas’.

This is the first time ever that adidas has created a campaign that leverages the three divisions that make up the brand – Sport Performance, adidas Originals and Sport Style, and combines them in one commercial that shows the unique breadth and depth of the brand.

The ‘all adidas’ campaign showcases adidas’ distinctive presence across and into different sports, cultures and lifestyles, fusing the worlds of sport, music and fashion. Captured in their authentic surroundings, brand ambassadors including football stars Lionel Messi and David Beckham, NBA star Derrick Rose, pop icon Katy Perry and the adidas skateboarding team, amongst others, show that when you love the game, whatever the game, you put your all into it.

The commercial is supported with a brand new soundtrack from Justice called Civilization (official release date 4th April 2011). Directed by Romain Gavras, famous for directing Justice and M.I.A, the campaign is built around a 30- and 60-second version of the commercial for TV and Cinema as well as an extended 2-minute version for Online. Viewers and fans can then continue the conversation online through social media platforms such as Facebook and twitter, where adidas serves up daily, in-depth exclusive content from the various parts of the brand – from new product releases to competitions for Katy Perry tickets and much more. adidas already engages in excess of 10 million fans of the brand on a regular basis across these platforms. In addition, the creative will come to life in a complete through-the-line offering, including mobile, retail, activation events and print.

“In the past ten years we have successfully extended the adidas brand into three powerful sub-brands with adidas Sport Performance, adidas Originals and adidas Sport Style. Now we are proud to be able to show the breadth and depth of the adidas brand in one global brand campaign,” explains Erich Stamminger, member of the Executive Board responsible for Global Brands.

“‘all adidas’ is the biggest campaign we have ever executed. Its creative concept brings together the diversity of the brand under one strong roof. From the court to the catwalk, the stadium to the street, we are giving an authentic statement with credibility that only adidas has.”

Montreal-based agency Sid Lee created and produced the global campaign. Sid Lee was hired as the global advertising agency for lifestyle label adidas Originals at the start of 2008 and developed the global campaigns for Originals in 2009 and 2010 including ‘House Party’. In 2010, Sid Lee was announced as the global lead-agency for the entire adidas brand.

The “all adidas” campaign takes place throughout 2011 in a mix of environments from sport to music, lifestyle to fashion with different elements rolling out over the year. Five second teaser spots have been aired in the weeks leading up to the global launch of the hero advert film on March 16th, 2011.

www.adidas.com/areyouin