If you’re passionate about footwear, fashion, or fitness, and you have an online following, the Adidas affiliate program might be the ideal side gig for you. This program lets you earn a commission by promoting Adidas products to your followers. However, like all affiliate programs, it comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
Here’s a rundown of how the program operates, the eligibility requirements, and the sign-up process, along with some tips for maximizing your commission.
Why Adidas?
With its iconic 3-stripe logo, Adidas is the biggest sportswear brand in Europe and the second biggest sportswear brand in the world.
Their product range includes athletic footwear, clothes, and accessories for sports like soccer, running, hiking, yoga, strength training, golf, and tennis. Their clothing is also popular as leisure wear.
Partnerships with high-profile athletes like Lionel Messi and Derrick Rose have helped Adidas become a household name with a cult following.
What Is the Adidas Affiliate Program?
The Adidas affiliate program is a partnership opportunity for bloggers, influencers, and website owners to promote Adidas products and earn commissions.
When you register with the Adidas affiliate program, you’ll receive trackable links to Adidas.com. Your goal is to get people to click those affiliate links and make a purchase. For every eligible sale associated with an affiliate link (within 30 days of clicking it), Adidas pays out a commission.
Say, for example, you’re a football influencer, and you post a video of yourself doing training drills wearing Adidas kit, or you’re a fashion blogger, and you write a list of 5 ways to wear Adidas Sambas. You can direct your followers to your unique affiliate link to buy the products featured in that content.
Who Is Eligible for the Adidas Affiliate Program?
Adidas likes to collaborate with affiliates who are passionate about sports, fashion, and helping others “harness the power of sport in their life”. To be eligible for the program you should:
- Be established in a relevant niche e.g. footwear, sport, fashion, fitness apparel
- Be able to demonstrate that you have strong traffic and an engaged audience
- Have an audience in the 18-24 age bracket
- Be passionate about the Adidas brand
- Create high-quality content “with compelling editorial, promotions and thought leadership”
Having your own web domain, business email address, and an attractive, professional-looking website or social profile will improve your chances of being accepted to the Adidas affiliate program.
Application Process
To join the Adidas affiliate program, follow this link (or scroll to the bottom of the Adidas website and look for “Affiliate program” in the menu) and click “Apply now!”. You will be redirected to Impact, the affiliate company that manages the Adidas affiliate program.
Fill out the application form with your personal details and information about your website, social media pages, and the methods you’ll use to promote Adidas products. After your application has been reviewed, you will receive an email informing you whether your application was successful.
Successful applicants will have access to Adidas’ affiliate marketing tools, analytics, and promotional content via their Impact dashboard. Once you’re registered, you can start promoting Adidas products.
If you are already registered with Impact (a top affiliate marketing platform), simply search for Adidas on your dashboard and apply there. You will need to provide a short motivational letter explaining why you want to promote Adidas products.
Adidas Affiliate Program Details
If you’re considering joining an affiliate program, it’s important to consider factors like product range, commission rates, brand values, and cookie duration. Let’s dive deeper into the Adidas affiliate program details.
Product Range
Adidas stocks fitness apparel for men, women, and children, including products like sneakers, sports bras, T-shirts, and tank tops. They also sell shoes and accessories like soccer balls, backpacks, gym bags, and water bottles.
As an Adidas affiliate, you could choose to target athletes and sports enthusiasts with a sport-specific niche such as yoga or rugby, focus on a product category, like classic sneakers, or niche down on leisure wear with sport-centric fashion content for women.
Certain products, such as Yeezy collection products (discontinued due to Kanye West’s many controversies), may not be eligible for commission.
Commission Structure
The commission you earn as an Adidas affiliate will depend on your location and the products you promote. For example, Adidas’ UK website states that Adidas affiliates earn up to 10% commission, while affiliate network Impact lists the following commission rates for different regions:
- Canada 5%
- Australia 3%
- Mexico 7-10%
For comparison, Nike’s affiliate program offers up to 15% commission while both Under Armour and the Lululemon affiliate program offer a 5% default commission rate.
Cookie Duration
Browser cookies are what make it possible to trace a sale back to a particular affiliate via their affiliate links. For Adidas affiliates, commission payouts are based on a 30-day cookie period. This means that you earn commission on sales made within 30 days of a customer clicking on an affiliate link. After that period, the cookies will expire and any purchases made by the customer will not generate a commission.
For comparison, both Nike and Lululemon base their payouts on a 30-day cookie period, although some other programs offer much shorter periods.
Pros of Joining the Adidas Affiliate Program
- Competitive commission rates (up to 10% commission in some regions)
- Free to join
- Competitive cookie duration
- Globally recognized brand
- Big range of high-quality products
- Free marketing materials and promotional tools
- Useful affiliate dashboard with analytics
Cons of Joining the Adidas Affiliate Program
- Lower maximum commission rate than Nike
- Relatively high barrier to entry (i.e. good traffic and quality content)
How to Maximize Earnings In the Adidas Affiliate Program
Here are our top tips for making the most of the Adidas affiliate program.
Choose a Strong Niche
One of the secrets to success in affiliate marketing is selecting a strong niche, such as streetwear or running. This helps you build up a dedicated audience and allows you to tailor your content accordingly.
Choose your marketing channels to match your niche. For example, Pinterest users are 70% female so it doesn’t make sense to use Pinterest to promote Adidas’ rugby kit for men.
Be Useful
One affiliate marketing strategy is to make content that is useful to your audience. Workout routines, product reviews, styling tips, and sports training tips can all help your target audience reach their goals and drive engagement. Of course, if you can create engaging content that simply entertains, that can work well too.
Leverage Trends, Offers, and Seasons
To generate affiliate link clicks and sales, showcase Adidas products or themes that are getting attention such as:
- current events e.g. Euros, Olympics, Boston Marathon
- products trending on social media
- newly released products
- Adidas offers e.g. Black Friday
- seasonal products (like this spring/summer haul)
Optimize for SEO
Use relevant keywords to improve your site rankings in Google. Focus on long-tail keywords that potential buyers might use when searching for specific Adidas products. Seek backlinks from reputable websites in your niche to increase organic traffic.
Utilize Data
Your dashboard will help you monitor the performance of your Adidas affiliate links. Note which content types, products, and social media platforms generate the most sales. Use A/B testing to experiment with different formats, call-to-action button, and product images for your blog, newsletter, or social media posts and see what drives the most affiliate link clicks and sales.
Other Tricks
- Know your audience so you can tailor your content to their interests and promote Adidas products they’ll love.
- Collaborate with successful affiliates (especially influencers) to broaden your audience.
- Drive engagement with polls, quizzes, and contests, and by replying to comments and messages.
- Study successful Adidas affiliates to find out what works. Follow their followers to get ‘followbacks’ and grow your audience.
Alternatives to the Adidas Affiliate Program
Adidas is not the only sportswear brand with an affiliate program. Here are some other affiliate programs that are worth investigating, along with their commission rates.
- Nike (up to 15%)
- Sweaty Betty (up to 12%)
- PUMA (up to 10%)
- Columbia Sportswear (up to 10%)
- Urban Outfitters (15%)
There are also affiliate programs that carry multiple brands or a wider range of product categories, such as:
- Amazon (up to 12%)
- NET-A-PORTER (up to 6%)
- Shein (10-20%)
- Temu (up to 20%)
- Walmart (1-4%)
Consider factors like the demographics of your existing audience, the average order value of the retailer, and the commission structure. For example, do you earn commission on clicks or sales?
Is The Adidas Affiliate Program Worth It?
Adidas offers a competitive cookie duration, a wide range of popular, high-quality products, and up to 10% commission. It’s also an iconic brand and one of the top sportswear companies in the world which means it shouldn’t be difficult to find shoppers who are interested in buying Adidas products.
If you have a sizeable, engaged audience in the sports or fashion niche then the Adidas affiliate program is an exciting opportunity to generate additional income from your following. However, it’s worth comparing the program to competitors like Nike which offers up to 15% commission.
Ultimately, it’s important to choose an affiliate marketing brand that matches your audience’s preferences and inspires you to create compelling content that drives sales through affiliate links.