Adidas

2 teardowns of the decisions behind Adidas. Covered from both sides — the engineering read and the boardroom read.

Both lenses

EP 10· Jul 2, 2026

FIFA 2026's Ball Hides a Computer Players Can't Feel

At FIFA 2026, Adidas hid a computer inside the World Cup ball, handed it to professional players, and dared them to find the difference. They couldn't. Adrian Vance breaks down the Trionda ball, the suspension rig that took years to build, and the engineering principle he calls the Invisibility Tax — the work you do so the user never feels what you added.

How Adidas Decided to Skip the FIFA 2026 Hype

Nike ran away with the World Cup ad battle on every metric the headlines tracked. Adidas quietly pre-sold roughly $290M of product before a single ball was kicked — and chose the shelf over the spotlight.

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