Adidas and Ikea to develop products for home workouts

By

Eva BOLHOEFER

Translated by
Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jun 11, 2019

German sportswear retailer Adidas and Swedish furniture chain Ikea have teamed up to develop new home fitness solutions as part of a collaborative design and research project.

“At Ikea we are experts in life at home, we make furniture and solve people’s everyday needs. But we are not experts in fitness and sport, and that’s why it makes perfect sense to partner up with Adidas. Together we want to make the home a more active place”, said James Futcher, creative leader at Ikea of Sweden.

Designers, product developers and other specialists from both companies visited the homes of people in New York, Chicago, Shanghai and London to understand their needs and frustrations associated with exercising at home.

Mothers with small children and teenage girls were a particularly important focus group, they said: “Women are incredibly important to adidas so it’s been inspiring to spend time exploring how different groups use their home for workouts, and beginning to imagine how that might look in the future,” said Michael Bui from Adidas.

The first products from the Adidas x Ikea collaboration are expected to launch in 2021.