The last couple months have been rough on Adidas ($XETRA:ADS). The sneaker and sportswear giant has been closing stores and slowing production in China in the wake of Coronavirus. A few days ago, an employee at its Germany headquarters was diagnosed with the disease. Stock price for Adidas soon dropped from $176.26 mid-January to $127.48 this week, a 27.7% decrease. 

Today, the company will share its earnings report before the market opens via webcast, and analysts aren’t exactly optimistic. Wedbush analysts dropped its Q1 2020 earnings per share estimates last week, now expecting $1.38 per share for the quarter, down from a previous estimate of $1.88. Last month, ValuEngine lowered Adidas shares from a “hold” to a “sell” rating. 

According to our social media data, consumers aren’t fully turning their backs on Adidas, but engagement has been static. The brand’s Instagram following has remained around 28 million, but its Facebook mentions have gone down 33% since the beginning of February, from 35,800 to 24,000.

 

But things could change in the coming months. Since the beginning of February, Adidas’ LinkedIn headcount has increased by 300 employees, from 35,800 to 36,100.

 

The slight jump could be due to Adidas’ forthcoming tech and gaming offerings. Soon, the company will roll out GMR insoles, a movement-tracking product developed with Google ($GOOG). The insoles will record speed, touch, control, and kicking power, and sync the data with Electronic Arts' ($EA) FIFA Mobile game. There will also be a GMR app available for iOS and Android.

Adidas’ yet-to-be-released Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Linen kicks could be another boon for the company. Also, the German footwear maker has plans to improve its Boost cushioning technology with experiments in outer space. Adidas wants to take the gravity out of the Boost production process and see how the model's foam pellets move.

If anything can help Adidas, it's shooting shoes into the cosmos and collaborating with Kanye West.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

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