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058 ANNUAL REPORT 2006 › adidas Group ›
TaylorMade-adidas Golf
TaylorMade-adidas Golf, which changed the game of golf
by bringing the metalwood to the masses 27 years ago,
today is market leader in the metalwoods category. Yet our
success in golf reaches far beyond that single category.
Every brand under the TaylorMade-adidas Golf umbrella is
synonymous with authenticity, innovation and quality. We
strive to continually extend our brands’ positions as lead-
ers in the development and implementation of advanced
performance technologies in our products including clubs,
balls, footwear and apparel. Our mission is to have the
leading performance golf brands in the world.
TaylorMade: Focus on Premium Golf Equipment and Balls
By focusing on innovation and technology, TaylorMade is
the leading brand in the metalwoods category and the mar-
ket leader in the hybrid and fairway woods categories in the
world’s biggest golf market, the USA. We are committed to
continuously providing golfers with the most technologically
advanced golf equipment in all product categories and tar-
get consumers who seek the most innovative, performance-
enhancing golf products available. Therefore, we consistently
build on and enhance our industry-leading technologies,
applying them in new product categories. In 2006, for exam-
ple, we successfully launched a new series of r7® irons fea-
turing enhanced Inverted Cone Technology. Additionally, we
are positioning TaylorMade as our premium golf ball brand
that offers the most advanced tour-caliber golf balls played
by top professionals. To make TaylorMade the most visible
and recognized brand worldwide, we partner with several
of the world’s most popular and successful golfers such as
Sergio Garcia, Retief Goosen, and Mike Weir. We support our
product initiatives with industry-leading brand communica-
tion (see Campaigns and Products, p. 117). Going forward,
our key strategic priorities for the TaylorMade brand are to
further advance TaylorMade as the No. 1 driver brand on the
world’s major professional golf tours, to extend the position
as the leading driver, fairway wood and hybrid brand on the
PGA Tour and to promote TaylorMade as a supplier of pre-
mium, tour-quality golf balls.
adidas Golf: Technology-Infused Golf Apparel and Footwear
adidas Golf is the fastest-growing footwear and apparel
brand in golf, as a result of our steady commitment to devel-
oping great-looking, great-feeling, performance-enhancing
products. In the golf footwear market, we have established
adidas Golf as an industry leader by introducing stylish high-
performance products such as the award-winning Tour 360
golf shoe. With the introduction of the adidas ClimaCool®,
Clima Compression and ClimaProof® technologies in golf
apparel, we have positioned adidas Golf as the most innova-
tive performance apparel brand in the golf market. Through
our unique approach to golf footwear and apparel, we target
active, serious, athletically inclined golfers who understand
that the right technologies can dramatically improve the per-
formance of footwear and apparel. Therefore, it remains our
key priority to sustain adidas Golf’s position as a serious yet
stylish performance footwear and apparel brand by continu-
ously incorporating industry-leading design and technology
into our products. Our partnerships with professionals such
as Sergio Garcia, Jim Furyk, Tom Lehman and Natalie Gulbis
combined with our marketing campaign “Equipment for Your
Body”, which emphasizes the importance of the right foot-
wear and apparel for a golfer’s performance (see Campaigns
and Products, p. 117), help us to effectively present our brand
to consumers.