Social Media's Adidas Love Continues Into Summer

According to the latest data from TickerTags, adidas AG (ADR) ADDYY’s NMD has been the shoe of the year in the first half of 2016.

TickerTags monitors social media sites to identify trends by searching for words and phrases that appear together in social media content, such as tweets.

After its launch in December 2015, the NMD line has made headlines for selling out of stores and has also been one of the hottest shoes on social media.

The adidas Yeezy Boost, which is rapper Kanye West’s shoe line, drew unprecedented social media buzz upon its release in 2015. Kanye’s celebrity endorsement got the Yeezy Boost off to a hot start with more than 11,000 organic Twitter mentions per week out of the gate, but the NMD line has no celebrity endorsement.

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After a relatively modest 1,000-mentions-per week start, the NMD’s most impressive accomplishment has been its staying power. Now, more than six months after its release, the NMD is still generating spikes in social media mentions that are two to three times higher than those of last month’s Yeezy re-release and this summer’s adidas Ultra Boost release.

Sentiment regarding the NMD is also almost exclusively positive, with the only consistent complaints having to do with its lack of availability in many stores.

Nike Inc NKE shares are up 2.6 percent on Wednesday after the company reported mixed Q2 results.

So far, 2016 has been the year of adidas. The stock is up 44.2 percent year-to-date compared to Nike’s 12.9 percent decline.

Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.