ÿþTo further support, adidas released an open letter to its employees Adidas Alerts and to communities around the country. The letter called on everyone to join the effort and together, level the playing field and co-create the future of women's sport (see below).Candace Parker, WNBA champion, two-time WNBA MVP and two-time Olympic gold medallist said: My goal in everything I do is to provide better opportunities for my daughter and girls her age both in sports and in life.

Being a role model for young athletes motivates me each time I step onto the court. Having a partner like adidas, who is so committed to creating new opportunities for the next wave of young female athletes, is so powerful and I'm thrilled to be involved in this Adidas All Star new initiative.By age 14, girls are dropping out of sport 1.5x faster than boys [1] and by age 17, 51% of girls who participated in sport have quit [2] because they do not have a sense that they belong, and they don't Adidas Alphabounce see a future in sport.

A recent study conducted by the EY Women Athletes Business Network and ESPNW showed that 94% of women executives in the C-suite played sport and 52% played at the university level or higher [4] .Recognizing that this isn't an issue the brand can fix alone, adidas is inviting fans, organizations and athletes to join the movement and co-create solutions together.To share your story, ideas and solutions to co-create the future for women's sport with adidas use #CreatorsUnite on Adidas Basketball Shoes social media.

YouTuber Video Game Evolution recently released a video that looks at how Kobe has evolved in digital form in both the 2K and NBA Live/Elite series. It's a fascinating look at how graphics advanced with each successive year and also the art direction that both 2K Sports/Visual Concepts and EA Sports took in designing their player models. You also get a few sneaker cameos in the video and surprisingly, the adidas The Kobe makes an appearance as early as NBA Live 2002.

When an athlete leaves a brand, it doesn't make business sense to promote them after they're gone and that's why you get retros that kinda sorta look like the originals but not really or you they come out with new names altogether (hi, adidas Crazy 8 and Fila Ninety6). Agassi's return means the odds of a proper Nike Air Tech Challenge revival just got that much better. No Adidas Black Friday offense to Johnny and all, but yes, we are serious.

As far as brands and the cities they own goes, Los Angeles was adidas then Nike depending on what side Kobe was on, Chicago has and always will be a Nike/Jordan town despite a short Derrick Rose and adidas uprising a few years back and LeBron brought the swoosh wherever he went. It seemed like Oakland, San Francisco and the rest of Northern California was going to be an Under Armour town for the next decade or so. Now it's not so sure and we get to benefit from the so sure and we get to benefit from the competition.