I saw a sale event on GILT for Adidas’ Porsche Design merchandise hit my inbox, so of course I initially took it as an opportunity to bash a perennially unprofitable business. But I pinged my colleague and Retail expert Eric Levine for his 2-cents, and wanted to share his unedited response.

McGough: Bad for ADI – again?

Levine: I don’t think so.  The market fluffed-off LULU a month or so ago when they had a similar event.  This site is probably the best example of a tasteful clearance channel the industry has seen.  The reason why it works so well is 1) it’s a limited time event and 2) they merchandise it like the product is being sold at full price.  I actually think the brands like it.  From a volume standpoint, it’s not big enough for people to get worried.  This is not like topsiders showing up at Costco by the pallet-load.

Adidas: GILT Free - adi