Adidas Shares Rise Following London Marathon Branding Win

Shares in Adidas rose following the London Marathon, where Sabastian Sawe became the first person to run a sanctioned marathon in under two hours, while wearing Adidas trainers. 

This achievement from Sabastian is a significant product marketing win for Adidas against Nike, which has spent years attempting to create and market a shoe that can break the record, most famously in its Breaking2 campaign.

Patrick Nava, general manager at Adidas Running, said: "The Adidas family is incredibly proud of Sabastian and Tigist’s historic achievements, marking the fastest times humans have ever run in a marathon.

"This is a testament to the years of hard work and dedication they have made, alongside our innovation team, who have built a super shoe which breaks new ground in the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3."

Breaking2

Nike has been looking to create a shoe that can break the two-hour marathon barrier for several years. In 2017, the company launched its Breaking2 marketing campaign for its limited-edition Zoom Vaporfly Elite racing shoe. 

Chronicled in the company’s ‘Breaking2’ documentary, Nike looked to generate massive brand awareness by having the first marathon under two hours be run in this pair of Nike trainers, but runner Eliud Kipchoge finished the race at two hours and 25 seconds – 26 seconds over the goal. 

While Eliud Kipchoge did break the two hour mark at the 2019 Vienna marathon, the attempt was not officially recognised due to his use of pacesetters. 

Nike has already received backlash prior to the London Marathon, with the company having to remove its controversial Boston Marathon “runners welcome, walkers tolerated” advert, which many criticised for being exclusionary. 

“We want more people to feel welcome in running – no matter their pace, experience or the distance,” Nike said in a statement. “During race week in Boston, we put up a series of signs to encourage runners. One of them missed the mark. We took it down, and we’ll use this moment to do better and continue showing up for all runners.”

Following the controversy, Asics placed an advert in Boston that was seemingly in response to Nike, which read: “Runners. Walkers. All welcome.”

A high-performance rebrand 

This win for Adidas follows a rebrand led by CEO Bjørn Gulden, which aims to re-centre the brand on authentic sports performance after the brand ended its partnership with Yeezy. 

This has led to a significant rise in operating profits, with footwear sales rising 16% for the first half of 2025, and operating profits jumping 54% in its full year results. 

Discussing the company’s 2025 Q2 results, Bjørn said: “We have continuously grown double digits, and we ended the first half year with growth of 14% for the Adidas brand. We have been able to create brand heat, extend the lifecycle of existing franchises, create new franchises and extend the brand momentum also into apparel with a 17% growth in Q2, and we have seen strong growth across our performance categories, with running leading in Q2 with more than 25% growth.

“We still have a lot to improve, and we are far away from having optimised our business model. We are convinced that being a global brand with a local mindset is the right strategy to be globally successful.”