Dive Brief:

• Athleisure brands Adidas, Nike, Reebok, Under Armor and Puma all finished in the top 10 of the TotalSocial social media rankings for the apparel industry, according to Engagement Labs, creator of the TotalSocial social conversation measurement tool.

• According to TotalSocial, which measures both online and offline social conversations and word-of-mouth around brands, Adidas and Nike both are strong in online and offline categories, but Adidas has a slight edge in being shared in social conversation more by people consider high-engagement influencers.

• The apparel industry, meanwhile, has strong offline word-of-mouth driving sales, but lags behind other industries when it comes to online social performance.

Dive Insight:

The strong showing by Adidas is surprising, given that the company struggled financially last year and yielded the No. 2 spot in the athletic retailer market to Under Armour. As the retailer takes steps toward a comeback, growing social media conversation around its brand is the first indication that it is regaining some important cachet among consumers.

Meanwhile, Engagement Labs also said the athleisure brands that finished strong in the TotalSocial rankings could do even more to control and inspire online conversations and social sharing by packaging more content around their online efforts.

That's a strategy that Nike appears to have already tapped into this summer. The company recently debuted its much-anticipated Nike+ mobile app, which includes training advice content along with mobile shopping capabilities. 

The TotalSocial index also highlights the brands that are strongest in offline social performance. American Eagle, a teen retail comeback story, generates a lot of word-of-mouth about its products and came in fourth in offline performance. However, it failed to make the top 10 in online social performance, signifying that it's still missing the mark on key platforms where their target consumers are increasingly spending time and money.