Adidas to Make Snowboard Boots, Sign Jake Blauvelt
Full article on ESPN here.
JAKE BLAUVELT SIGNS WITH ADIDAS
The adidas Blauvelt debut pro model “apres-shred boot.”
When big-mountain snowboarder Jake Blauvelt and his agent began contemplating a potential boot sponsor for Blauvelt last spring, they did something odd: On a whim, they e-mailed a skateboarding team manager at a company that had never made snowboard boots.
Turns out it was the smartest thing they could have done, as Adidas had just decided to find a snowboarder who could help adidas expand into snowboarding, following the success of fellow mainstream sportswear behemoth Nike. Blauvelt, who had admired the three-stripes brand since his youth soccer days in Vermont, was one of a handful on adidas’ short list.
The wild coincidence morphed into a three-year contract between Blauvelt and adidas. The company is counting on the 25-year-old to lead its brand into snowboarding with a three-model signature boot line. According to brand marketing manager Jess Weinstein, adidas Snowboarding will also feature an outerwear line slated to be released in the fall of 2013, along with Blauvelt’s two pro model boots. An “après-shred boot” also bearing Blauvelt’s name is expected to be made available in the fall of 2012.
“We were the first [snowboarders] to contact them,” Blauvelt said, “and we set up a meeting in San Francisco and met a lot of the guys behind adidas Skateboarding and got the relationship going. Then I flew over to Germany this past summer and saw the headquarters, and they really sold me on the whole program. They’re super athlete driven and they like doing everything really authentically. I guess it was meant to be.”
Added Weinstein: “When Jake signed, that was kind of like a Christmas present we got. It was really a matter of amazing luck.”
In addition to the après boot, adidas’ two snowboarding models will be “a lower-end, pricepoint boot that’s soft, something the general consumer puts on at the shop and feels really good,” Blauvelt said. “Then we’re going to do something high end, which I’m really excited to work on. I’ve never been able to find a stiff enough, light enough, super high-performance boot.”
Designs for the high-end boot won’t be initiated until February, but Blauvelt already has some ideas. “We want to go low profile, super sleek—probably a leather boot with not many seams, and just make it look unreal,” he explained. “A lot of boot companies don’t cater to hard chargers because, honestly, I don’t think they sell that well. When people put on a boot in a shop, they just want it to feel like a sneaker. But what we’re hoping to do is have this really hard-charging, fairly stiff boot that feels good when you put it on, but also holds up throughout the winter.”
Weinstein said adidas’ action-sports group (which has expanded from six to 17 employees in the last two years) is focusing on its skateboarding products in 2012, its snowboarding products in 2013, and its surfing products in 2014.
“We never want to be a ‘me too’ brand,” Weinstein said. “We want to contribute something that riders can be really stoked on. We’re realistic about this. At the end of 2015, if we have enough product out there between footwear and outerwear that we can legitimately be considered a key contributor in the snowboard market, we’d all be high fiving.”
Oh gawd, not only do have to put up with the mall gangsters wearing their adidas now it will happen on the slpoes too, ewwwww.
Can’t quite put my finger on it, but when I first heard Nike were doing sb boots I had an uneasy feeling. Here we go again.
pretty sure Adidas have made snowboard boots in the past…
I’d wear them
My next pair of boots will be NIKE DK Zoom’s!!!!!
Tried them on in T2R at Jindy, and they fit me like a glove!!!!! [EDIT] Ummmmm….......... like a boot!!!!![/EDIT]
So when is Bankstown getting a snow store??? 
So when is Bankstown getting a snow store???
As soon as Fubu bring out there outerwear collection!!!!! 
hektik bro, cant wait for adidas to bring out the 5000 waterproofed bum bag.
hektik bro, cant wait for adidas to bring out the 5000 waterproofed bum bag.
5000 wont be enough!!!!! You’ll have to wear it at the front!!!!!
So when is Bankstown getting a snow store???
As soon as Fubu bring out there outerwear collection!!!!!
How quick will the first ram raid happen? 
So when is Bankstown getting a snow store???
As soon as Fubu bring out there outerwear collection!!!!!
How quick will the first ram raid happen?
Depends what time my cousin has finished the turbo on the Skyline!!!!!
Quite surprised at the responses in here to be honest - Kudos to Jake for getting a boot sponsor and having the control on design aspects of the boots. I’m not sure many of the existing companies out there would be giving him the freedom he’ll be getting with adidas. He’s got a similar deal with oakley to my understanding aswell when it comes to their outerwear which he also wears.
As for the other comment on Nike boots - if you’d seen how many people were wearing them last season in Whistler you could easily say they were a bloody popular boot which had awesome reviews from a tonne of people I knew riding in them.
Just my $0.02
I was only kiddin with the Skyline joke finney!!!!! 
I am seriously gonna get myself some Nike’s next boot, for sure!!!!!!
i am tossing up between getting burton slx’s in tahoe, or nike’s…see how we go
Nike’s don’t have shrink tech so I’m not a fan. I also love the burton speedzone lacing.
I will be interested in how these boots turn out though
It’s just funny that some brands are choosing too now, but I guess it is the age old debate. Are they or are they not jumping on the band wagon.
I guess one way to look at it is for some people who start boarding now are they just jumping on the band wagon.
Will Reebok try next cause I do remember them trying to do skate shoes for a bit. 