Adidas restarts its outdoor gear business

Adidas Says Outdoor-Gear Growth Is Outpacing Sports Goods
By Holger Elfes and Michele Steele

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Adidas AG said revenue from outdoor gear such as hiking boots and mountaineering jackets is rising at a faster pace than sporting goods and it plans to continue expanding in the category without the help of acquisitions.

Outdoor products accounted for 200 million euros ($290 million), or 1.7 percent, of revenue in 2010, Rolf Reinschmidt, senior vice president and head of the global outdoor unit, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York yesterday, identifying the size of the business for the first time.

Outdoor gear “has been one of the fastest-growing categories within the Adidas group in 2010 and that trend is clearly expected to continue,” Reinschmidt said.

...U.S. Plans

Adidas, which has restarted its outdoor business in Europe and Asia in the last three years, will enter the U.S. market, the world’s biggest, in the fall, Reinschmidt said.

Adidas plans to sell outdoor products in more than 300 U.S. retail outlets, including Campmor, Eastern Mountain Sports, Paragon and REI. The company estimates the size of the country’s outdoor market to be $10 billion of annual sales.

Reinschmidt has led the outdoor-sports unit since 2007 and has a team of 60 employees developing high-tech apparel and boots. Adidas’s outdoor apparel includes the 370-gram Terrex Gore-Tex Active Shell jacket, which is designed to protect trekkers at heights of up to 6,000 meters (19,686 feet).

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