Published 04 June 2019 • Inter IKEA newsroom

Better workouts with IKEA and adidas: RÖRLIGHET collection

For many people, it’s tricky to find time for training and exercise, and not everyone can join a gym or has enough space to work out at home. Together with adidas, IKEA aims to find new smart solutions to enable people to stay active.

One year ago, IKEA and adidas announced they were teaming up to imagine the future of sport in the home and to facilitate a long-lasting healthy lifestyle. Since then, designers, creatives, product developers and other specialists from both companies have been visiting the homes of people in New York, Chicago, Shanghai and London to understand their experience and frustrations associated with exercising at home.

“At IKEA we are experts in life at home, we make furniture and solve people’s everyday need. But we are not experts in fitness and sport, and that’s why it makes perfect sense to partner up with adidas. Together we want to make the home a more active place”, says James Futcher, Creative Leader at IKEA of Sweden.

The IKEA and adidas partnership is a joint design research project. The idea is to come up with new products to enable healthy habits at home, taking into account that the gym is not always an option for everyone due to time, financial or other lifestyle factors.

Mothers with young kids and teenage girls were the focus group during the initial home visits, since they are most likely to drop out of their routines. Exploring possibilities and solutions for mothers and young kids to stay active will also be adaptable to people in general.

“Women are incredibly important to adidas so it’s been inspiring to spend time exploring how different groups use their home for workouts, and beginning to imagine how that might look in the future,” says Michael Bui, Senior Director of Young Athletes Footwear, Apparel and Accessories, adidas.

Working together, adidas and IKEA will now focus on finding solutions to the frustrations people experience, such as how to exercise with limited space at home and how to avoid disturbing neighbours and family members. Another learning from the home visits is that fitness and wellness need to be fun – especially to inspire children to take part.

The first products from the collaboration are expected to be presented in 2021.

Designers: adidas and IKEA Creative Leader: James Futcher, IKEA Planned launch date: 2021