We already know that adidas dominated Instagram in 2015 with more likes than any other sneaker brand, but that's not the only area where the brand is shifting the paradigm.
A study by Max Doblin shows that adidas also has a firm grip on another popular platform; Reddit's sneakers forum, commonly known as r/Sneakers. Inspired by the Instagram findings, Doblin followed the r/Sneakers community—which is 75,000 sneakerheads strong—for 30 days during the months of March and April, tracking which brands populated the site's top 50 posts each day. Here's what he found.
adidas made up 36 percent of the site's top 50 posts, while Nike was the runner-up with 22 percent. The 'Other' category, which accounted for 19 percent of the month's posts, contained brands like Converse, Vans, Reebok, and Puma, along with other posts that were not brand-specific.
Breaking it down on a day-to-day basis paints an even better pictured of just how consistent adidas' buzz has been. As you can see in the chart above, it was rare for adidas to have less than 15 of the site's top 50 posts, while Nike only spiked this high on two occasions—Air Max Day and Mamba Day. Meanwhile, the highest peak came on March 17, when adidas controlled 54 percent of the site's top posts with its unofficial "NMD Day" releases.
One of the biggest things to note here is that adidas was able to maintain this level of buzz despite the lack of a high-profile Yeezy release. In fact, there hasn't been a new Yeezy release yet this year, but the brand's other output like the NMD and Ultra Boost have been able to keep it in the spotlight.
Be sure to check out Doblin's findings in full here.
