Adidas homes in on ‘next-generation behaviours’
Group fitness and workout streaming programme developer Les Mills, the Auckland company behind exercise classes like BodyPump and BodyCombat, has announced a new deal with German sporting goods group adidas.
Les Mills’ eponymous founder, a four-time Olympian, represented New Zealand in track and field events for over two decades. He opened his first gym in 1968, not long before retiring from his professional sports career.
The tie-up will see the partners join hands to connect 300 million-plus members of adidas’ free adiClub scheme with Les Mills’ Omnifitness strategy. The latter is designed to support fitness fans with effective and engaging workouts wherever they find themselves with enough time and space to exercise: "to meet people where, when and how they want", as chief executive Clive Ormerod described it. Key to the collaboration will be “combining the best of live and digital” to raise the bar and “redefine” training for new generations of enthusiasts, he added.
Co-developed live fitness events to capture the attention of the partners’ target audience are thus already set to run in major global cities including Singapore, Paris, Barcelona, Los Angeles and Stockholm this year.
Adidas will notably outfit Les Mills athletes and instructors with branded apparel, footwear and accessories. It has also assembled online product edits specific to what it called key activity pillars like strength workouts, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and yoga, shoppable via its website. Dropset trainers are recommended for added stability during barbell-based BodyPump classes, for example, while the adidas brand's Designed 4 Training Series (D4T) clothing system is suggested for more demanding HIIT sessions, such as Les Mills Grit.
General manager for sportswear and training at adidas Global, Aimee Arana, said the business was excited to put together "new and unique workout experiences that tap into next-generation behaviours" with the new venture.
BodyPump by Les Mills. Courtesy.
