adidas logged record revenues in 2025, according to the company's own reporting on adidas-group.com, while New Balance posted 19% growth in 2025 and set a $10 billion revenue target for 2026, per SGB Media. Both brands held pricing discipline throughout the year. No widespread markdowns. No panic promotions. The playbook: own your positioning, hold your margin, and let product quality carry the story.
The mechanism is simple but rare. Both brands treated price as a signal of value rather than a conversion lever. adidas maintained its full-price stance across core franchises—Samba, Gazelle, and technical running lines. New Balance doubled down on domestic manufacturing messaging and premium materials, justifying retail tags north of $150 on flagship silhouettes. Neither brand flooded the market with discount codes or loyalty point burns. Inventory moved at posted prices.
Why it worked: the category reset after years of DTC overexpansion and promotional fatigue. Consumers learned that constant sales mean inflated MSRPs. Brands that never trained customers to wait for 30% off retained pricing power when the market tightened. adidas and New Balance also controlled distribution—limited wholesale partnerships, selective door placement, disciplined online allocation. Scarcity became structural, not theatrical. When a product is genuinely hard to get at discount, full-price purchases follow.
The second factor: both brands invested in storytelling that made the price feel earned. adidas leaned on heritage reissues with cultural currency. New Balance emphasized American craftsmanship and performance engineering. The narrative justified the cost before the customer saw the cart. This is not lifestyle fluff—it is margin defense. A customer who believes the product is worth $160 does not need a code to convert.
For a small physical-product brand, the steal is methodical. First, eliminate standing discount codes from your site. No pop-up offering 15% off for an email. Train new customers to expect full price from day one. Second, build one sentence that justifies your cost—materials, origin, process, durability. Put it above the fold on every product page. New Balance says "Made in USA" and lists the factory. You can say "Solid brass, hand-finished in Ohio" or "12oz canvas, triple-stitched, lifetime guarantee." The specificity does the work.
Third, control availability. If you manufacture in batches, communicate the schedule openly. "Next production run ships May 15. Current inventory: 47 units." Scarcity is only credible when it is real and documented. Do not fake it—customers smell theater. Fourth, price at the high end of your category from launch. Do not plan to raise prices later. Starting low and climbing erodes trust. Starting high and holding builds brand equity.
The cost line for a solo founder: $0 to remove discount codes and rewrite product copy. $200–$500 for a Shopify app that displays live inventory counts if you want that feature. The time cost is one afternoon to audit your site and tighten the messaging. No ad spend required. The play is positioning, not promotion.
The broader pattern: pricing power is not a gift from the market. It is a choice enforced through consistent behavior. adidas and New Balance proved that even in a difficult year, brands that refuse to discount can grow. The next move for any physical-product brand is to audit where you are leaking margin through habit rather than strategy—and stop.
The takeaway
Pricing power comes from training customers to expect full price from day one and telling them why it is worth it.
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