When Melanie Oudin continues her Cinderella run tonight at the U.S. Open, her slipper company will be along for the ride. All the way to the bank.
Oudin's pink and yellow Adidas Barricade V's that she and her boyfriend designed this summer on www.miadidas.com may look more like neon bowling rental shoes than tennis footwear, but they've become the big fashion buzz of the Open. As the 17-year-old Georgian has spun her way through four rounds of against-the-odds Russian Roulette -- first Pavlyuchenkova, then Dementieva, Sharapova, and Petrova -- traffic and sales on the Adidas website has increased five-fold, according to a company spokeswoman.
Oudin's performance has been a match made in marketing heaven. Adidas couldn't have paid for better on-court exposure in front of the packed Flushing Meadows crowds and the global TV cameras. All eyes are naturally drawn to Oudin's hip-hoppity Barricade V-clad feet, reminiscent of Jennifer Beals in "Flashdance" ("she's a maniac on the floor"), the 1983 movie musical that, not unlike the Melanie Oudin story, also tugged at the heartstrings and made you believe in the power of dreams. And the shoes' wild colors pop even more with the contrast to her muted dark purple tank and skirt.
Be-Like-Melanie fans can click and buy her shoes or they can substitute their own color picks from a huge palette for the midsoles, midfoot, laces, outsole and uppers on a computer model for $140. The "MI Adidas" ("MI" stands for 'My Individual') build-a-pair webstore was launched this year by the company for some of its tennis, soccer, basketball, running and training shoe products. (Nike also has a color customization shoe program at its www.nikeid.com site, but it doesn't include tennis.)
Of course, the biggest draw of the MI Adidas program is the option of inscribing a personal message on the side of the shoes. As everybody around the world knows by now, Oudin elected the word, "Believe" on hers.
Adidas spotted Oudin's potential three years ago at the Racquet Club of the South in Atlanta when she was 14 and her star power was just a twinkle in her coach Brian de Villiers' eye. The company enlisted her to join its National Junior Team, a group of about 25 boys and girls in the United States who are supplied apparel and footwear. Adidas became Oudin's official sponsor when she turned pro last year, but the company declines to discuss the money relationship.
Ironically, her opponent in the quarterfinals tonight is Adidas' most prominent women's tennis endorsee, Caroline Wozniacki, who presumably signed a megabucks deal this summer as Adidas' spokesplayer for its tennis line designed by Beatle daughter and celebrated designer Stella McCartney.
So tonight's fashion match-up at Arthur Ashe Stadium under the bright lights pits Wozniacki in her pale purple-colored ensemble with ruffles from the "Adidas by Stella McCartney Collection" against the kid from Georgia in the "Adidas by Oudin" shoes.
