Brief as received

For their 60th Birthday, Adidas challenged us to reimagine their homepage as a cohesive brand portal that would seamlessly unify product stories, branded content, training programs, and their eCommerce store. The new front end for adidas.com needed to be mobile-first, offering an integrated experience across their services: the Adidas Shop, the miCoach Training System, the miAdidas Customization Configurator, and the Adidas.TV Branded Entertainment Portal.

Research & Insights

To understand how to craft a seamless experience, we conducted an extensive, month-long series of usability studies across all Adidas online properties. The key metrics analyzed were:

• Task Success Rate

• Time on Task

• Error Rate

• Conversion Rate

• Drop-off or Abandonment Rate

• Navigation Efficiency

• Mobile vs. Desktop Experience

• Cross Search Function Effectiveness

• Checkout Process Usability

• Page Load Time

• Cart Abandonment Rate

• Heatmaps and Clickstream Data

• Scroll Depth

We also used heatmaps, clickstream data, and scroll depth analytics to visualize how users were interacting with the site. This data was cross-referenced with consumer behavior trends drawn from Adidas advertising and events, helping us better understand user engagement patterns across devices.

Re-framed brief

Our findings revealed the need for a broader strategy. The challenge was not just redesigning the homepage but creating a mobile-first hub that would unify Adidas’ digital services. The goal was to increase user engagement and cross-utilization of these services while providing a more intuitive and cohesive experience.

Sharpened audience definition

We honed in on Adidas’ core audience: global, mobile-first youth aged 16-24—a demographic driven by speed, ease of use, and seamless integration of digital services.

Problem identified

The fragmentation of the digital ecosystem was a critical issue. Each service (eCommerce, training, customization, and entertainment) operated in vertical silos. This disjointed navigation led to high abandonment rates and low cross-adoption of services.

The question: How do we design a single, intuitive gateway that connects these five different experiences?

Insight that shed new light

Drawing inspiration from emerging mobile UI paradigms, especially emerging iOS application design and the sadly stillborn Nokia Meego UI, we realized the solution lay in “bubbling up” content and services rather than forcing users to drill down into vertical silos. This shift toward surfacing features dynamically would allow Adidas to present users with more relevant content upfront.

Marketplace & cultural understanding

Competitors in the athletic space were beginning to recognize a shift Adidas had long understood during it’s 60 years: youth culture is deeply intertwined with sports and entertainment. The adoption of sports brands by entertainers—rappers, actors, influencers—was driving brand relevance. To maintain its cultural edge, Adidas needed to seamlessly blend on-field performance with off-field lifestyle.

A new way of thinking about the product or brand

We reimagined Adidas.com as a dynamic, interactive map of the Adidas world. It wouldn’t just be an eCommerce site; it would be a brand-as-service platform, adapting and responding to user behavior to expose different aspects of the brand—whether content, products, or services—all within a single, unified experience.

Work the brief inspired

The redesign transformed Adidas.com into a mobile-first portal that integrated shopping, training, customization, and entertainment into one fluid interface. The adaptive and dynamic UI allowed users to effortlessly explore Adidas’ ecosystem without feeling overwhelmed. We built the site to be a “BRAND AS SERVICE,” creating a holistic digital world where users could immerse themselves in both the performance and lifestyle aspects of Adidas.