Why does Adidas release so few shoe models compared to their competition?

Because: World Record

I noticed Nike/Brooks/Boston are refreshing their lineup all the time and making changes for the sake of change that only annoy people and ruin good shoes.

Seems like Adidas is refreshing their shoe lineup every couple years and keeping things basically the same so shoes that work for you continue to work for you.

Why is Adidas such a slow mover relative to those other players?

The Boston is the same, basically, because you don't mess with perfection.

Compare that to Hoka... all these people complaining about the OG Cliftons being changed and Clifton 2 thru 5 being rubbish.

Just on the casual end of the spectrum. I think it's a good thing. The Adios/Boston/Tempo get incremental improvements for the people who like them, while there are pretty much infinite varieties of Supernova/Ultra Boost/Pure Boost/Bounce/etc. for everyone else.

I agree with this. I am a huge fan of both the Boston 6 and the Boston 7. The upper update on the 7 was a nice change for my foot but everything else felt exactly the same. I was very appreciative of this. I love having a shoe that is so dialed in that the company does not feel the need to offer dramatic changes just to sell more shoes.

They refresh it all the time wrote:

Just on the casual end of the spectrum. I think it's a good thing. The Adios/Boston/Tempo get incremental improvements for the people who like them, while there are pretty much infinite varieties of Supernova/Ultra Boost/Pure Boost/Bounce/etc. for everyone else.

Yeah, I was going to say, they seem to churn through so many different variations of boost, bounce, alpha, ultra. And they seem to have a lot of shoes that try to sort of try to bridge between being running and fashion shoes. Adidas does have a few shoes that are popular with more serious runners and do not change as much. Seems to be a smart strategy, serious runners just want to find and stick with a shoe that works for them. Newer and less serious runners can be distracted by all the new and shiny changes.

To release a new model every year, a shoe has to start being redesigned before the company can collect consumer responses in any reasonable way. I wish more companies were on a 2-year cycle instead of tinkering blindly.

Because they are smart!

That is why they have low production cost compared to Nike, and don't have a lot of shoes that battle against each other like the other running brands do.

Also, they have moved away from sponsoring leagues and associations, and are just focusing on sponsoring athletes, and are using the athlete's social media platform to market, so their marketing cost is also down as well.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I have 4 different Adidas shoes in my rotation - Boston, Adios, Takumi Sen, and Sub 2. Never realized that they have fewer models, but not sure why I would need more.

tres pipes wrote:

I have 4 different Adidas shoes in my rotation - Boston, Adios, Takumi Sen, and Sub 2. Never realized that they have fewer models, but not sure why I would need more.

My point is that those shoes are relatively unchanged for the last ~3 years.. meanwhile NIke is constantly releasing new versions (i.e. seems like a new version of Pegasus arrives every 6 months) or entirely new models (Zoom Fly, Vapor Fly 4%, React).

It just seems odd that Adidas wouldn't want to release some new products to compete with the new offerings from Nike.

Shoequestion1 wrote:

tres pipes wrote:

I have 4 different Adidas shoes in my rotation - Boston, Adios, Takumi Sen, and Sub 2. Never realized that they have fewer models, but not sure why I would need more.

My point is that those shoes are relatively unchanged for the last ~3 years.. meanwhile NIke is constantly releasing new versions (i.e. seems like a new version of Pegasus arrives every 6 months) or entirely new models (Zoom Fly, Vapor Fly 4%, React).

It just seems odd that Adidas wouldn't want to release some new products to compete with the new offerings from Nike.

I agree with if ain't broke don't fix it. All the iterations of Boston have been some of the best trainers for efficient runners ever produced.

The color options blow however.

Shoequestion1 wrote:

tres pipes wrote:

I have 4 different Adidas shoes in my rotation - Boston, Adios, Takumi Sen, and Sub 2. Never realized that they have fewer models, but not sure why I would need more.

My point is that those shoes are relatively unchanged for the last ~3 years.. meanwhile NIke is constantly releasing new versions (i.e. seems like a new version of Pegasus arrives every 6 months) or entirely new models (Zoom Fly, Vapor Fly 4%, React).

It just seems odd that Adidas wouldn't want to release some new products to compete with the new offerings from Nike.

Puma

Puma

Adidas

Adidas

Asics

Asics

Puma

Puma

Nike

Nike

Nike

Adidas

????

100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, mile, 3k, 2mile, 5k, 10k, marathon WR shoes.

Nike does not rule running like so many believe. Adidas is an international company and doesn't buy into monthly updates for their serious running shoes. ---Their lifestyle lines however, have millions of variants.

BoosterClub wrote:

Shoequestion1 wrote:

My point is that those shoes are relatively unchanged for the last ~3 years.. meanwhile NIke is constantly releasing new versions (i.e. seems like a new version of Pegasus arrives every 6 months) or entirely new models (Zoom Fly, Vapor Fly 4%, React).

It just seems odd that Adidas wouldn't want to release some new products to compete with the new offerings from Nike.

Puma

Puma

Adidas

Adidas

Asics

Asics

Puma

Puma

Nike

Nike

Nike

Adidas

????

100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, mile, 3k, 2mile, 5k, 10k, marathon WR shoes.

Nike does not rule running like so many believe. Adidas is an international company and doesn't buy into monthly updates for their serious running shoes. ---Their lifestyle lines however, have millions of variants.

Check your work, homie. You list 12 shoe brands, yet 11 events

Shoequestion1 wrote:

I noticed Adidas releases like 1 model every 2 years and often times it’s basically the same shoe (ie Boston 7 is same as 6 pretty much)

Seems like Nike/Brooks/Hoka are refreshing their shoe lineup all the time

Why is Adidas such a slow mover relative to those other players?

Just how many innovations are really discovered?

If the shoes works, wear it. If you are concerned more with color and 'newness' you have he wrong focus.

i dont get it wrote:

BoosterClub wrote:

Puma

Puma

Adidas

Adidas

Asics

Asics

Puma

Puma

Nike

Nike

Nike

Adidas

????

100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, mile, 3k, 2mile, 5k, 10k, marathon WR shoes.

Nike does not rule running like so many believe. Adidas is an international company and doesn't buy into monthly updates for their serious running shoes. ---Their lifestyle lines however, have millions of variants.

Check your work, homie. You list 12 shoe brands, yet 11 events

Sorry!

1/2 marathon, Nike!

Half my Brain Boosted wrote:

i dont get it wrote:

Check your work, homie. You list 12 shoe brands, yet 11 events

Sorry!

1/2 marathon, Nike!

Check again, asics most certainly does not have the 1500/mile world records...

Shoequestion1 wrote:

tres pipes wrote:

I have 4 different Adidas shoes in my rotation - Boston, Adios, Takumi Sen, and Sub 2. Never realized that they have fewer models, but not sure why I would need more.

My point is that those shoes are relatively unchanged for the last ~3 years.. meanwhile NIke is constantly releasing new versions (i.e. seems like a new version of Pegasus arrives every 6 months) or entirely new models (Zoom Fly, Vapor Fly 4%, React).

It just seems odd that Adidas wouldn't want to release some new products to compete with the new offerings from Nike.

As others have said, these shoes are great and don't need overhauls. Nothing is more frustrating than when a company makes a shoe that you once liked worse with their new releases.

Daniel Komen wore Nike's when he set world records in 2 mile and 3000m not Pumas.

El G wore Nike's when he set world record records in mile and 1500m.