Adidas Football is bringing in the next phase of its history with an unorthodox approach: a new, exclusive application that allows users to customize their own cleats.

The adidas GLITCH app, crafted with assistance from mobile retail firm NewStore and geared towards consumers in the United Kingdom, will be available initially on iOS with an Android client arriving soon. It will be an invite-only experience, the invite being contingent on acceptance by the adidas GLITCH community on social media.

“There are any number of reasons why adidas would kickoff their GLITCH initiative with an invite-only strategy, including the desire to create a sense of exclusivity, manage inventory and people’s expectations and control the experience,” said Michael Becker, managing partner at mCordis. “Creating intimate, and exclusive experiences for select communities, is a proven and effective strategy.

“As the concept takes off, they can always open it up to a broader audience and create layers upon layers of loyalty and experiences within the community.”

Adidas GLITCH
The app will serve as both a hub for adidas’ fledgling GLITCH community and also an alternate revenue channel, with a full suite of independent transactional components at its disposal. Certain football boots and skins can only be purchased via the app, and all shopping, transactions, and customer service are done via the platform.

The decision to fracture its inventory is a curious one for the sports apparel giant, and its provenance perhaps has something to do with the demands of the kind of consumer it is looking to court:

“Adidas GLITCH is tapping in to people’s demand for personalized and contextualized products and services and the desire for enhanced individual self-expression,” Mr. Becker said. “With GLITCH people can mix and match the style and performance parameters of the their football cleats depending on their situational context and mood.

“This could enable adidas to increase sales volume and potentially frequency with the individuals they serve.”

The app is currently the only way to access the new customizable GLITCH soccer cleats, a note of exclusivity that is sure to attract the UK streetwear buyer in addition to the soccer enthusiast.

Mobile offer
The adidas GLITCH is one instance of a growing trend of mobile-only offers for products, a trend which the company helped to establish with the app-based release of the highly coveted Yeezy Boost shoes in 2015.

“Individuals are mobile and a retailer store really is not needed anymore in most situations, especially within specific communities like football where adidas is known and has a following,” Mr. Becker said. “With mobile and within the on-demand economy the individual is the point-of-sale, the store is right in their hand or ear, a retail presence is not needed.

“A dedicated and private app to serve the individual gives adidas the ability to engage individuals at scale and potentially on the individual’s terms. Adidas is leveraging the power and efficiencies of direct to the individual enablement, an approach that’s only possible through and with mobile.”