Adidas: is NMD the brand's Chinese mistake?

What would the consumers' reaction be if a world-renowned brand was to launch a model called FYM, the acronym of 'f**k your mother'? In China, the issue has arisen with Adidas.

On 17th March the brand with the three stripes launched its new sneaker model NMD, the concept of which was unveiled in December. The presentation caused an outburst on Chinese social media. 'NMD', for the young Chinese, corresponds in fact to the expletive 'your mother!', 'ni ma de' in Chinese. Even if Adidas is targeting young urban consumers, for example by featuring its models at sneaker specialist Shanghai Juice, a provocation does not seem to have been intended.

We contacted Adidas, whose explanation was that NMD is the line's global denomination. "It was a product code used during the design and manufacturing process, and the developers liked the name's tech sound,"  the brand stated. "Any association with a Chinese term or phrase would be pure coincidence."

A coincidence which could turn out to be highly negative in terms of image.

Other Western brands have had similar problems. For example, Peugeot is called Biāozhì in China. No problem in northern China, but in the South the term could take on vulgar connotations.

Nike too was faced with the same problem when developing the 'Nike SB' models, since 'SB' is used in Chinese as the acronym for a word meaning 'dumb-ass'. More recently, Nike put forward a model intended for the new year festivities in China, featuring two separate ideograms on the shoes' heels. The first meant 'becoming wealthy' and the second 'happiness'. However, placed next to each other, they could also be translated as 'to put on weight', a fact that was a source of mirth on Twitter's Chinese equivalent, Weibo.

These are sizeable mistakes for the two sporting giants. In Adidas' case, it is highly surprising to see the German outfitter launch a new line before checking out the name's significance on the Chinese market, which is anything but insignificant for Adidas. In 2015, Adidas generated a revenue of €2.411 billion in China and its satellites.

In particular, the region is a real cash cow for the sporting giant, yielding an EBIT of €866 million and an operation margin in excess of 35%. Despite a slow-down in growth, Adidas still has high ambitions for the region, and announced it wants to grow from 9,000 to 12,000 stores there by 2020.

Olivier Guyot (with Tong Wu)