NEW YORK (TheStreet) --In 2014 Germany-based athletic apparel maker Adidas (ADDYY) was the country's worst performing stock, but it has since bounced back thanks to its acceptance of the marriage of fashion and sports, as well as a trip down memory lane.
BloombergTV's "Bloomberg Markets" on Monday afternoon showed a segment from a Bloomberg Radio piece in which Bloomberg Businessweek's Jim Ellis appeared to talk about the company's comeback.
"A lot's changed, biggest thing is that the company has sort of made its peace with sort of melding fashion along with the sports shoe business," Ellis said. "Increasingly what's happening for them is that, instead of thinking only in terms of sports performance, they're really getting excited about melding in what's hip, what's current and right now a lot of that's retro."
Looking back Ellis explained how Adidas ended up becoming Germany's worst performing stock, noting that Nike (NKE) was dominating the U.S. market. Adidas' largest appeal is soccer, which isn't as popular in the U.S. as in other markets.
"They'd run into a number of problems, and it had gotten to the point where a lot of people wondered what's going to happen with them," Ellis continued.
Over the past year Adidas stock has been up over 100% and that has to do with a lot of the right things just coming together, Ellis said. The retro appeal is really helping the company.
