Conference Call: Details Behind the Five Ten Acquisition by adidas

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Conference Call: Details Behind the Five Ten Acquisition by adidas
By bturman
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Why sell Five Ten? Charles Cole (left), the Founder and President of Five Ten, fills us in on why adidas was the perfect match. He and Rolf Reinschmidt (right), the Senior Vice President adidas Outdoor, met back in January to kickstart the deal.
Charles and Rolf seal it with a handshake. They were all smiles when the deal came to a close.
Charles, Mary, Adrienne, and Dave are all part of the Five Ten family. adidas now joins the family, too, but you "won't see them from the outside."
It's not a celebration unless there's cake. Note the slight change to Five Ten's tag line. Clever!
Little Lisa gets in on the festivities, too.
These riders (and others) all helped to shape Five Ten's role within the MTB industry. Where will the company be five years from now? We'll have to wait and see for certain, but there's a very good chance MTB will still be a big focus.
What about the athletes? Five Ten and Adidas will continue to support and work with the sport's best names, like 2011 World Champ, Danny Hart. - Photo by Sven Martin
The adidas / Five Ten crew holds their glasses high. Here's to bright future, guys. We're excited for you!
intrographic new
Five Ten was very recently sold to the adidas Group for $25 Million. Naturally we had a few questions about the deal, so we rang up a few key players at both brands. This slideshow contains the important excerpts from that conversation.
6 comments

View replies to: Conference Call: Details Behind the Five Ten Acquisition by adidas

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thewheeloflife
13 years ago
A merger with blackdiamond, petzl, mammut, the north face or others is understandable, but this acquisition from adidas makes no sense. Also, the report about this acquisition on the 5.10 website clearly mentions this move being part of their strategic business plan route for 2015 and their estimated growth for this market. Apparently it is all about the numbers ($$$), big brands are money driven companies.
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SpokeApparel
13 years ago
Wow. 25 million. Based on that figure I assume 5.10 is a 6-8 million dollar company annually (unless the valuation was based on 5 years in stead of 3). In any case, 25 mil would then be a very fair and very hard number to turn down. As a business owner, you need an exit strategy and this one is too sweet to turn down for Charles Cole. Adidas will not "hurt" the brand and I do not foresee it evolving erroneously through them as it might through Nike, Reebok or even Under Armour. Not to mention Cole's team will stay on board as will Cole for a number of years I am sure. Gotta say, though, that I really do love the 5.10 product, branding, messaging, etc. It does feel bitter sweet to read this news.
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thewheeloflife
13 years ago
Good interview guys. However, my position remains the same this is only a typical corporate move to seek more shareholder value. Adidas might make great products for running, baseball, basketball, soccer and other sports but does not have a clue about outdoor sports. Shame because 5.10 is great brand that I respect as a climber and rider, and both of these sports are not in need of corporate money.
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Evan
13 years ago
Awesome job Vital, this was awesome! Really interesting. NPR quality interviewing.