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AADI JAIN
NAMAN VORA
REHAAN PEER
YASH DALAL
DHRUMIL SHAH
SUDHANSHU MANTRI

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When Adidas North America President Mark King payed Fortune a visit in early 2015, he had a simple sales pitch: Despite recent sales woes because of design misfires, the German sportswear company could be cool again.

At the time, things looked a bit bleak. Adidas was underperforming top rival Nike (NKE, -2.66%) in the key U.S. sportswear market and even found itself confronting headlines that it was trailing Under Armour (UA), a far smaller upstart brand. King laid out a simple strategy: focus more on running, basketball, and the stylish everyday wear "originals" business. He also vowed to report double-digit sales growth in the region.

On Thursday, Adidas—the world's second largest sportswear maker after Nike—delivered further proof that it is on a path toward victory. Fiscal second quarter sales in the North American market jumped 23% from a year ago, following double-digit gains in the first quarter and for the full fiscal 2015 year.

Growth has been fueled by many of the key levers that King called out, including a 60% increase in sales for "originals" and running footwear for the first half of the year. For the running business, sales have benefited from continued strong consumer interest for Adidas' Boost technology, as well as impressive strong sales for the newer $100 AlphaBOUNCE shoe.

"We are really proud of the fact that we are the fastest growing [sportswear] brand in North America," King told Fortune in an interview.

He's right. The growth in North America bested the latest quarterly results from Under Armour (up 21.5% in North America) and Nike (sales were roughly flat). Nike executives earlier this summer found themselves defending the "strength of the brand" in the North American market, while Under Armour's 17% sales jump for apparel fell short of the 20% target. Wall Street analysts were mostly persuaded that both would soon return to their former glory.

To be sure, Nike's business is still by far the largest, generating $3.74 billion in sales in the most recent period versus $877.6 million for Adidas and $827 million for Under Armour.

Still, the strong growth for Adidas in the second quarter, which builds on a 21.8% increase a year ago after two years of declines, implies the turnaround story has got some traction. And King says he's bullish that growth can be sustained.

"There is a lot of hype for our products," he added. Part of that is the appeal of the ongoing partnership with rapper Kanye West, but Adidas says it has also been more successful in designing on-trend silhouettes, new apparel fabrics, and innovative technology. Adidas has also signed on key athletes to endorsement deals that help elevate the brand in the eyes of consumers. And the stronger sales growth and trendy look for Adidas gear is resulting in greater interest from retailers.

If we excluded the growth in North America, Nike's growth rate in Q3 would be 5.1% and Adidas' growth rate would be 10.6%. The difference is not very high, especially if we consider that part of Nike's underperformance is due to currency disadvantages

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FOUNDED BY ADI AND RUDI DASSLER
The pair started the venture in their mother's laundry but, at the time, electricity supplies in the town were unreliable, and the brothers sometimes had to use pedal power from a stationary bicycle to run their equipment.
By the 1936 Summer Olympics, Adi Dassler drove from Bavaria on one of the world's first motorways to the Olympic village with a suitcase full of spikes and persuaded U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens to use them, the first sponsorship for an African American. Following Owens' haul of four gold medals, his success cemented the good reputation of Dassler shoes among the world's most famous sportsmen. Letters from around the world landed on the brothers' desks, and the trainers of other national teams were all interested in their shoes. Business boomed and the Dasslers were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes every year before World War II.

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A focus on speed

The German sports giant told investors 50% of its sales will be through speed-enabled products by 2020.

Adidas defines speed-enabled as a complete “reshaping” of its entire business model, from range planning to product creation, sourcing, supply chain, go-to-market and sales, as it looks to “significantly improve its speed-to-market.”

A closer relationship with celebrities
A lot has been said about Adidas’ work with controversial rap superstar Kanye West, but last month And Adidas has pledged to build a wider collaborative network with famous athletes, creatives, consumers and other partners as it aims to “help shape the future of sport and sports culture”.

A new direction for Adidas
Adidas is hoping the changes will help it recapture lost ground in North America, where it currently sits behind both Nike and relative newcomer Under Armour.

At the start of the year, it appointed a new chief executive in Kasper Rorsted, who is set to join fully in October.

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Strengths In many invents is the biggest sponsor

1.  Strong management team

2.  Brand recognition and reputation

3.  Diversity and variety in products offered on the web

4. Strong control over its own distribution channel

5.  No bad reputation like child labor or environment pollution

6. In the Soccer industry, Adidas has a stronghold

7. Sponsoring various sports and events like Olympic, streetball, tennis etc

8.  Adidas have verity of products like shirts, shoes; bags etc. and many of them are available on its own site

Weaknesses

1. High prices in some products

2. Online customer service not "helpful" or easy to find

3. Adidas if One Step Behind Nike

4. Poor customer service

5. Most of the shoes manufacture by Adidas is of very low quality

Opportunities

1. Increase female participation in athletics

2.  Expanding international market

3. Retail

Threats

1. Amount of competitors increasing day by day

2.  Global economic crisis

3. Nike