Image source: Adidas

Adidas to disband its Digital Sports business unit

Adidas is shutting down its Digital Sports business unit, a move which calls into question some 74 jobs.

This is the part of the company responsible for development of wearable technology. Adidas has been active in this space for some 15 years with its sensor-enabled footwear, smart clothes and fitness tracker range.

Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets for 2017

The 74 staff are spread across a number of offices located in Portland and other parts of the US, Germany and China. An Adidas spokeswoman told Women’s Wear Daily, the company is hoping to find them jobs in other parts of the company.

Whether software and hardware will continue to be made is yet to be determined.

“We’re not ruling it out but we haven’t made a clear commitment,” the spokeswoman added.

Adidas acquired the Austrian app maker Runtastic for a reported $240 million in August 2015. The company has since closed down its own miCoach service, and focused on Runtastic’s instead. This is in line with Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted’s plans to streamline its digital experiences.

Image source: Adidas

In April this year Adidas launched its All Day fitness app for women. The software provides various routines tailored to a user’s fitness level, cooking recepies and relaxation suggestions. The main novelty though are what Adidas calls ‘Discoveries’ – i.e. advice and tips from experts in various fields.

The company was rumored to be working on a new fitness device dubbed the Chameleon HR fitness tracker. Some of the images accompanying the launch of the All Day fitness app showed a never before seen fitness tracker. The wearable in no way bares any resemblance to the company’s previous fitness band adding credence to the rumours. Its quite possible this may never see the light of day now.

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Marko Maslakovic

Marko founded Gadgets & Wearables in 2014, having worked for more than 15 years in the City of London’s financial district. Since then, he has led the company’s charge to become a leading information source on health and fitness gadgets and wearables.

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