Creating two new positions, Adidas has named Nicole Vollebregt as global head of women's and Kerry Speake as global women's creative director. They will both work from Adidas America's office in Portland, Oregon. It has also retained Christine Day, who served as chief executive of Lululemon Athletica from 2008 to the end of 2013, as a part-time adviser on retail strategy and collaboration with smaller brands.
A graduate from the University of Toronto, Vollebregt has been serving lately as “global vice president influencer marketing” for Adidas. Kerry, who will report to Vollebregt, is a new addition to Adidas' team. Over the last 15 years Kerry has worked as a designer or design director at Ralph Lauren, Iceberg, J.Crew, Mossimo, Gap and Levi's. She also served as vice president of creative direction at Eddie Bauer for five years, before starting her own venture.
Day will continue as full-time CEO of Luvo, a start-up company that markets healthy frozen foods. According to Bloomberg, she had first signed a consultancy contract with the Three Stripes in May 2015 and has already had meetings Vollebregt and Eric Liedke, Adidas' global brand president.
The trio will oversee the women's business of the Adidas brand across all the categories in the Adidas Performance, Originals and Style division, including the Stella McCartney business. They will not take care of Neo, which addresses a younger customer. In the Performance segment, they will start by reviewing categories such as running, training and outdoor.
Aside from new product development, their efforts should show up in Adidas' own stores and its controlled retail space by creating female-friendly shopping environments, much like in Lululemon stores. Adidas will also boost its community efforts in the women's space with such initiatives as Avenue A, described as a women-only subscription service being currently only rolled out in the U.S., and new marketing campaigns like “Here to Create” and Sport16.
“I'm Here to Create” is a new global campaign intended to celebrate female athletes and their creativity. Caroline Wozniacki, the professional tennis player and former World No. 1 on the WTA Tour, and Candace Parker, the American professional basketball player, are among the athletes that Adidas has recruited for a series of short films about women's fitness, along with fitness influencers like Robin Arzon and the supermodel Karlie Kloss. These new clips follow shortly after an “I'm Here to Create” spot featuring Lionel Messi.
