Adidas joins Nike and Puma in Going Toxic-Free

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

Adidas is going toxic-free, the company has just announced! This is great news for our environment, our rivers and the millions of people in China and elsewhere who depend on rivers for drinking water and agriculture. Without the coming together of Greenpeace supporters and activists to challenge Nike, Adidas and other would-be champions to lead the way towards a toxic-free future, it would have taken much longer to achieve.

The world's top three sportswear brands -- Nike, Adidas and Puma -- have now committed publicly to eliminate all discharges of hazardous chemicals throughout their supply chain and across the entire lifecycle of their products by 2020. (See Adidas's statement here)

No 'safe' amount of hazardous chemicals

Importantly, Adidas's commitment to ‘zero discharge’ of hazardous chemicals means that the world's three leading sportswear companies have recognised that there is no such thing as a 'safe limit' when it comes these substances. This is a significant shift for the companies.

It's also a milestone for our campaign to stop industry poisoning our water with hazardous, persistent and hormone-disrupting chemicals.

Detoxing is back in fashion

There's movement among the laggards too. Since news of the tainted clothing has spread internationally in the fashion and business media, Lacoste, G-Star Raw, Uniqlo and Chinese sports brand Li Ning have begun to engage. Greenpeace campaigners will begin talks with them in the coming weeks to turn their initial engagement into strong and binding individual commitments for a toxic-free future.

Adidas is 'all in'

As part of its commitment, Adidas has included some very specific and immediate actions, including a Nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) phase-out roadmap and a commitment to work with all tiers of their supply chain. NPEs -- which are used as surfactants in textile production -- subsequently break down to form toxic nonylphenol (NP). Nonylphenol is a persistent chemical with hormone-disrupting properties that builds up in the food chain, and is hazardous even at very low levels.

Crucially, Adidas has also agreed to further promote the principle of the ‘right to know’, ensuring full transparency about the chemicals being released from its suppliers' factories, facility-by-facility, year-by-year. It has also explicitly stated its commitment to developing a cross-industry approach in addition to its own individual implementation plan. The company has promised to deliver its action plan within seven weeks.

This is why we campaign

With these commitments, Nike, Adidas and Puma have broken away from the other big name clothing brands listed in our "Dirty Laundry 2" report, such as H&M and Abercrombie and Fitch. In the coming weeks we will be watching closely to ensure that the sportswear leaders turn their words into actions and provide a concrete and ambitious implementation plan.

To everyone who has taken part to make the Detox campaign work this far -- Thank you! There's still a long way to go, but with your support we are winning.

Source: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/adidas-joins-nike-and-puma-in-going-toxic-fre/blog/36595/

Combining Sports, Music and Fashion Raises Buzz for Sneaker Companies

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

Buzz scores—which measure recent consumer perception—have been rising among 18-49 year-olds since early August for sneaker giants Adidas and Nike, corresponding to the companies’ recent advertising endeavors that combine together sports, music and fashion.

On August 4, Adidas unleashed an integrated campaign for its iconic Originals line, led by a national television spot called “All Originals”. As clips of skateboarders, musicians, fashionistas and, notably, Snoop Dogg flash by on screen, the narrator, over a muted hip-hop beat, calls out, in what is nearly a rap, to “every individual, all originals” who proudly wear Adidas. The ad is, as Adweek comments, ironically unoriginal for a campaign touting “originality”, but still is “surprisingly natural, and totally in character…capturing Adidas’ attitude and delivering a razor sharp, if clichéd, message.”

Hitting many of the same notes as Adidas’ “All Originals” spot, albeit in a very different way, the centerpiece of Nike’s latest PR salvo was an event: the Nike US Open of Surfing. Nike was the title sponsor for the yearly event that ran from July 30 to August 7 and which featured not just surfing, but skateboarding, BMX competitions and music concerts. All of it was free, open to the public and streamed online. In addition to the surfing extravaganza, Nike has begun to release a new round of “Make Yourself” print ads for its women’s sportswear line that feature many of the same stars who were seen at the US Open of Surfing.

These two projects have helped to significantly raise the Buzz scores for both companies. On August 3—a day before the Adidas ad was released and 4 days into the US Open of Surfing—Buzz scores for Adidas stood at 6.2 and 7.7 for Nike. They soon began to rise, peaking on August 18 at 39.4 for Nike and 28.7 for Adidas.

Over the same period, Reebok also saw its Buzz score rise, from 9.5 to 19.3. The company has been pursuing its own attempt at integrating music and shoes, the “Reethymn of Lite” campaign. Beginning in July with a “collaboration” between the company and the music producer Swizz Beatz on a line of shoes and a song, the campaign has continued into August with a Swizz Beatz concert in Las Vegas on August 22 which Reebok streamed live and gave away tickets to in a contest.

Adidas, Nike and Reebok were measured using the YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score, which asks respondents: “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?”

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brandindex/2011/08/29/combining-sports-music-and-fashion-raise-buzz-for-sneaker-companies/
 

Chris Brown and Swizz Beatz Perform for Reebok in Las Vegas

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

Chris Brown and Swizz Beatz shared the stage Monday night (Aug 22) in front over 500 friends and industry tastemakers at the Moorea Beach Club at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino in Las Vagas. The pair were on hand for the Reebok Classics launch party, which was a part of Vegas’ Project trade show.

Check out pics below and look even further down for video footage of them performing “Dance Like a White Girl” together:

Source: http://gossiponthis.com/2011/08/25/chris-brown-swizz-beatz-reebok-las-vegas/