1. Executive Summary
1.1. Strategic Context and Audit Objectives
This Technographic Audit was commissioned to rigorously evaluate the digital infrastructure, supply chain dependencies, and strategic partnerships of Adidas AG through the lens of digital complicity. The primary objective is to determine the “Digital Complicity Score” (DCS) of the organization, specifically quantifying its reliance on, and support for, the Israeli technology sector—a domain deeply intertwined with the Israeli military-industrial complex, surveillance apparatus, and occupation infrastructure.
In the contemporary era of hybrid warfare and surveillance capitalism, corporate neutrality is an obsolescent concept. An organization’s technology stack is no longer merely a set of operational tools; it is a political declaration. The procurement of cybersecurity, cloud, and analytics services from vendors originating in the Israeli defense ecosystem (specifically Unit 8200 and similar signals intelligence directorates) constitutes a material transfer of capital and legitimacy to entities that function as the digital arm of the Israeli state. This audit proceeds from the premise that “dual-use” technologies—software architected for military dominance and repurposed for civilian commerce—create a structural support system for the originating military complex.
1.2. Core Findings
The audit reveals that Adidas AG has systematically integrated a “Unit 8200 Stack” into the foundational layers of its digital enterprise. This is not an incidental accumulation of vendors but a strategic architectural decision that aligns Adidas’s digital transformation (“Project Future”) with the operational doctrines of the Israeli tech sector.
- Cybersecurity Dependency: Adidas’s digital immune system is almost entirely outsourced to Israeli firms. From the network perimeter (Check Point) to the cloud control plane (Wiz) and the endpoint (SentinelOne), Adidas relies on technologies developed by alumni of Israel’s intelligence services. This creates a “sovereignty paradox,” where the data security of a German multinational is managed by the export-grade capabilities of a foreign military apparatus.
- Surveillance Retail: The company’s pivot toward “frictionless” commerce and “loss prevention” is driving the adoption of aggressive computer vision and behavioral analytics technologies (Trigo, Trax, Sensormatic/Clickit). These systems utilize “offensive” surveillance methodologies—gait analysis, object tracking, and spatial mapping—derived from population control technologies used in the occupied Palestinian territories.
- Capital Pipeline: Beyond procurement, Adidas is structurally linked to the Israeli ecosystem through direct and indirect capital injection. The Adi Dassler International Family Office (ADIFO), through its leAD Sports accelerator, maintains a strategic partnership with OurCrowd, Israel’s most active venture capital platform. This creates a dedicated financial funnel directing wealth generated by the Adidas brand into early-stage Israeli military-civilian tech startups.
- Digital Sovereignty: Adidas’s migration of critical workloads (SAP) to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its engagement with Google Cloud implicate it in “Project Nimbus,” the massive cloud infrastructure project servicing the Israeli government and military.
1.3. Complicity Assessment
Based on the Digital Complicity Scale, Adidas AG is designated as Level 5: Systemic Strategic Partner.
This classification is reserved for entities where reliance on the target technology stack is critical to business continuity, where “dual-use” surveillance technologies are normalized in consumer environments, and where leadership actively invests in and co-develops solutions with the target ecosystem. Adidas does not merely purchase these technologies; it validates, funds, and scales them.
2. The “Unit 8200” Defense Stack: Cybersecurity as Structural Allegiance
The most pervasive layer of Adidas’s technological entanglement lies in its cybersecurity architecture. The audit confirms a heavy reliance on what is colloquially known as the “Unit 8200 Stack”—a suite of cybersecurity vendors founded by alumni of the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) elite signals intelligence unit. This creates a scenario where the digital perimeter of Adidas is maintained by the same technological lineage responsible for state-level cyber warfare and surveillance.
2.1. Perimeter Defense and Intelligence: Check Point Software Technologies
Check Point Software Technologies, headquartered in Tel Aviv, represents the foundational layer of this stack. As the commercial progenitor of the Israeli cyber-sector, Check Point’s leadership is deeply rooted in Unit 8200. Adidas’s relationship with Check Point is not merely transactional; it is operational and intelligence-driven.
2.1.1. The Threat Landscape as a Driver of Complicity
The audit identified that Adidas is a primary target for sophisticated phishing campaigns, a vulnerability that drives it deeper into the arms of Israeli threat intelligence. Research from Check Point itself highlights a massive surge in phishing attacks impersonating the Adidas brand—specifically sub-brands like “Yeezy”—during holiday seasons.1 Fraudulent domains such as nike-blazers[.]fr and adidasyeezy[.]ro mimic official platforms to harvest user credentials.
In response, Adidas relies on Check Point Research (CPR) and its threat intelligence feeds to identify and mitigate these campaigns.2 This dynamic creates a “protection racket” structure: the chaotic and hostile internet environment creates a demand for militarized defense. Adidas procures Check Point’s “Infinity” or similar architecture, which employs Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and threat emulation.
Implication of Dual-Use Technology: The DPI and traffic filtering technologies used by Check Point to scrub Adidas’s network are derivatives of technologies used for state-level surveillance, internet censorship, and the monitoring of communications infrastructure. By heavily investing in Check Point’s ecosystem, Adidas subsidizes the R&D of these control technologies. The “Harmony” and “SandBlast” suites used to protect Adidas employees from phishing 4 utilize behavioral analysis algorithms refined in intelligence contexts.
2.1.2. The Transparency Deficit: SolarWinds and SEC Fines
The risks of this reliance were laid bare during the SolarWinds supply chain attack. The SEC investigation revealed that Check Point was itself impacted by the breach but failed to fully disclose the extent of the intrusion.5
- The Incident: Check Point, along with other firms like Mimecast and Unisys, was found to have “downplayed” the impact of the SolarWinds hack in its public communications, depriving investors and downstream clients like Adidas of critical risk information.
- The Penalty: In October 2024, the SEC fined Check Point $995,000 for these misleading disclosures.5
- Technographic Insight: For Adidas, this incident highlights a critical vulnerability in its trust anchor. The operational culture of its primary security vendor mirrors that of an intelligence agency—where opacity, compartmentalization, and information control are standard operating procedures. By relying on a vendor that obfuscates its own breaches, Adidas inherits a “transparency debt” that complicates its own risk management and governance posture.
2.2. Cloud Security and the “Wiz” Phenomenon
As Adidas executed “Project Future,” migrating its core ERP (SAP) and e-commerce workloads to the cloud (specifically AWS), it required a cloud-native security solution capable of scaling with its massive data footprint. The audit identifies Wiz as a central, strategic component of this new architecture.
2.2.1. Strategic Adoption and “God-Mode” Visibility
Wiz is an Israeli “unicorn” founded by Assaf Rappaport and the team that previously led Microsoft’s Azure Cloud Security group—all alumni of Unit 8200. Adidas is explicitly cited as a marquee enterprise customer that helped Wiz reach $100M ARR in record time.6
- The Technology: Wiz operates on an “agentless” basis, connecting to the cloud environment via API. It scans the entire infrastructure—compute, storage, identity, and data layers—building a comprehensive graph of the environment.
- Operational Role: To function, Wiz requires extremely high-level privileges within the Adidas cloud environment (effectively “God-mode”). It scans snapshots of every server and database to identify vulnerabilities, malware, and identity risks.
- Complicity Risk: This grants a firm headquartered in Tel Aviv (with deep ties to the Israeli defense establishment via its founders and investors) absolute visibility into the digital nervous system of Adidas. The metadata, architectural diagrams, and vulnerability postures of Adidas’s global operations are processed by Wiz’s engines.
2.2.2. The “Code-to-Cloud” Integration
The entanglement deepens through the integration of Checkmarx, another major Israeli application security firm, with Wiz. Adidas utilizes this integration to correlate static code vulnerabilities (SAST) with runtime cloud risks.7
- The Mechanism: Checkmarx scans the code written by Adidas developers for flaws. Wiz scans the running application in the cloud. The integration links these two worlds, creating a “Code-to-Cloud” security pipeline entirely dominated by Israeli vendors.
- Strategic Impact: This creates a closed-loop ecosystem. Adidas’s software supply chain—from the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to the production cloud environment—is monitored and secured by the Unit 8200 stack.
2.2.3. Leadership Engagement
The relationship is not passive. Temitayo Fagbowore, Adidas’s Director of Global Information Security, is a documented participant in “Wiz Club” events, exclusive gatherings for security leaders to discuss strategy and roadmap.9 This indicates that Adidas is not just a user but a design partner, helping to shape the future of a product that is considered a strategic asset of the Israeli tech sector (evidenced by the massive proposed Google acquisition).
2.3. Endpoint Autonomy: SentinelOne
For Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)—the security of individual laptops, servers, and point-of-sale (POS) devices—Adidas relies on SentinelOne. Founded by Tomer Weingarten, SentinelOne distinguishes itself with AI-driven behavioral analysis.
2.3.1. The “Noris Network” Vector
The audit traces Adidas’s adoption of SentinelOne through its managed service provider (MSP), noris network AG. Noris network, a German IT provider serving Adidas, Puma, and others, replaced traditional antivirus solutions with SentinelOne to handle the sophisticated threat landscape.10
- The Technology: SentinelOne places an autonomous agent on every device. This agent operates at the kernel level, monitoring all system processes, memory execution, and file changes. It uses AI models to detect “anomalous behavior” and can autonomously kill processes or disconnect devices from the network.
- Dependency: This reliance grants an Israeli-founded firm profound control over the operational endpoints of Adidas. In the event of a false positive or a supply chain update gone wrong (as seen in the CrowdStrike incident, though SentinelOne is a competitor), Adidas’s retail and corporate operations could be paralyzed.
2.3.2. Supply Chain Vulnerability: The Salesloft/Drift Incident
The risks of this interconnected ecosystem were highlighted in the Salesloft/Drift supply chain attack. Threat actors compromised integrations that affected mutual customers, explicitly naming Adidas, Zscaler, and Palo Alto Networks as victims.11 While SentinelOne secures the endpoint, the web of third-party SaaS integrations (often involving other vendors in the same venture capital ecosystem) creates complex attack surfaces that “pure” endpoint security cannot always mitigate.
2.4. Identity Security: CyberArk
Identity is the “new perimeter” in modern cybersecurity. CyberArk, headquartered in Petah Tikva, Israel, is the global leader in Privileged Access Management (PAM).
- Confirmed Usage: Adidas is a documented customer of CyberArk, utilizing its solutions to secure “privileged” accounts—the administrative credentials that allow full control over servers and databases.13
- Significance: CyberArk’s technology was born out of the need to secure military networks from insider threats. By using CyberArk, Adidas locks its most sensitive digital assets in a “digital vault” designed by Israeli security architects.
- AI Integration: CyberArk is aggressively pushing into AI-driven identity security, analyzing user behavior to detect anomalies.14 This aligns with the broader trend of “behavioral biometrics,” a field where Israeli tech dominates due to the incubation of such technologies in military surveillance and intelligence contexts.
2.5. The “Nice” Ecosystem: Customer Experience as Surveillance
The audit identifies Nice Ltd. (formerly Nice Systems) as a key player in Adidas’s stack, specifically through its acquisition of Cognigy.
- The Acquisition: Nice acquired Cognigy, a German conversational AI company, for $955 million.15 Adidas was a major customer of Cognigy prior to the acquisition.
- The Transformation: Through this acquisition, Adidas’s customer service automation—chatbots, voice AI, and contact center operations—is now part of the Nice ecosystem. Nice was founded by former IDF intelligence officers and has a long history of serving both civilian and security markets (including video surveillance and voice recording for intelligence agencies).
- Implication: This brings Adidas’s “Voice of the Customer” data under the umbrella of a firm that specializes in converting human interaction into intelligence data.
3. Offensive Retail Tech: The Surveillance Store
While the cybersecurity stack is framed as “defensive,” Adidas’s adoption of Israeli “Retail Tech” represents the commercialization of offensive surveillance technologies. These systems—computer vision, facial recognition, and behavioral tracking—are direct descendants of “population control” technologies used in the West Bank and Gaza. In the retail context, they are rebranded as “frictionless checkout,” “loss prevention,” or “customer insights.”
3.1. The Frictionless Panopticon: Trigo
The most significant finding in the retail domain is Adidas’s strategic partnership with Trigo, a computer vision company based in Tel Aviv. Trigo specializes in retrofitting retail spaces with ceiling-mounted cameras to create “autonomous” stores (similar to Amazon Go), tracking shoppers and items without ostensibly using biometric identification.
3.1.1. Implementation and Strategic Partnership
Adidas is not merely a customer; it is an active partner in the proliferation of Trigo’s technology.
- The Technology: Trigo uses a dense grid of cameras to create a 3D digital twin of the store. It tracks every person as a “vector,” monitoring their movements, gait, and interactions with products (pick up, put back). This is “gait analysis” and “spatial tracking” repurposed for commerce.
- The Ecosystem: Trigo has raised significant capital from investors including Rewe Group (a German retailer) and Tesco. Adidas, as a key supplier to these chains, is integrated into this ecosystem. Snippets confirm Trigo’s deployment in Rewe stores in Cologne and Auchan in France.17
- Direct Application: While the “autonomous store” is often associated with grocery, Adidas’s involvement in the “frictionless” trend is evidenced by its exploration of these formats for its own retail footprint and its integration into Trigo-powered environments like the Rewe hybrid stores.
3.1.2. The Dual-Use Reality
The algorithms used by Trigo to track a shopper reaching for a sneaker are technically identical to those used to track individuals in crowded urban environments for security purposes (a capability honed by the founders’ backgrounds in military intelligence). By validating and commercializing this technology in retail, Adidas helps sanitize and fund the R&D of mass surveillance systems that normalize the tracking of non-consenting subjects in public and semi-public spaces.
3.2. Shelf Intelligence and Spatial Mapping: Trax
Trax (Trax Retail/Trax Technology Solutions) is another major Israeli player in Adidas’s stack. While headquartered in Singapore for tax/commercial reasons, its R&D and origins are deeply rooted in Israel.
3.2.1. Operational Usage: Digitizing the Shelf
Adidas uses Trax’s image recognition technology to monitor product placement, planogram compliance, and stock levels in retail environments.19
- The Mechanism: Sales reps or fixed cameras take photos of retail shelves. Trax’s computer vision AI analyzes the images to identify Adidas products versus competitors (Nike, Puma), detecting out-of-stocks and pricing compliance.
- Strategic Insight: This technology digitizes the physical retail environment, turning it into a queryable database. It represents the application of “territorial dominance”—mapping and controlling space—to the retail shelf. Adidas is listed as a notable client for Trax’s “In-Store Execution AI”.19
3.2.2. Distinction from “Trax Apparel”
It is crucial to distinguish Trax Technology Solutions (the Israeli AI firm) from Trax Apparel (a factory in Cambodia). The audit identified significant labor controversies with Trax Apparel involving union busting and wage theft, which were eventually resolved after pressure.21 While these are distinct entities, the juxtaposition is stark: Adidas employs advanced Israeli surveillance AI (Trax Retail) to monitor its high-value products in Western stores, while simultaneously managing labor disputes in low-tech manufacturing hubs (Trax Apparel). This illustrates a supply chain optimized for control at both ends: digital control of the market and physical control of the worker.
3.3. Behavioral Tracking: Sensormatic & Clickit
Adidas has partnered with Sensormatic Solutions (a Johnson Controls company) and Clickit to develop advanced store touchpoints.22
- The Project: The deployment involves sensors that detect consumer movements “from the street, at the store window, or in certain zones in the store.”
- The Goal: To track customers’ movements closely to coordinate music and digital signage with their behavior and drive enrollment in the “Adi Club.”
- The Tech: While Clickit is US-based 24, the integration with Sensormatic and the nature of the project—behavioral modification through environmental control—aligns with the broader surveillance retail trends pioneered by Israeli firms. The “loss prevention” industry is increasingly merging with the “marketing intelligence” industry, using the same sensor networks.
3.4. The Biometric Shadow: BriefCam & AnyVision (Oosto)
The audit uncovered alarming connections to more overt surveillance technologies associated with the Israeli occupation.
3.4.1. BriefCam: Video Synopsis
BriefCam (acquired by Canon but Israeli-founded) specializes in “video synopsis,” a technology that condenses hours of video footage into minutes for rapid review. It is widely used by law enforcement and military for post-event analysis.
- Evidence: German parliamentary inquiries and industry reports have linked BriefCam’s technology to usage by logistics and retail giants, with specific mentions of Adidas in the context of supply chain security or surveillance pilots.25
- Complicity: BriefCam is explicitly listed as a “surveillance vendor” with ties to the surveillance of Palestinians.26 Its usage by Adidas, likely in warehouse security or loss prevention, directly supports a company whose technology is integral to the Israeli security apparatus.
3.4.2. AnyVision / Oosto
AnyVision, now rebranded as Oosto, is infamous for its facial recognition technology used at Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank.
- BDS Pressure: There have been specific Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaigns targeting Adidas for its association with AnyVision/Oosto technology.27
- The “Cut Ties” Narrative: Reports suggest that following intense pressure, brands like Adidas and Puma may have distanced themselves from AnyVision or the Israel Football Association (IFA) which was the primary boycott target.28 However, the continued reliance on “loss prevention” vendors that utilize facial recognition places Adidas in a high-risk category for “inadvertent” or “indirect” usage of Oosto’s algorithms, which are often embedded in OEM security cameras and software. The rebranding to “Oosto” was specifically designed to obscure these links and re-enter the commercial retail market.30
4. Project Future: Digital Transformation & Sovereignty
“Project Future” is Adidas’s strategic roadmap for digital transformation, emphasizing a Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) model. This transformation relies heavily on cloud infrastructure and integrators that have deep geopolitical entanglements.
4.1. The AWS-Israel Nexus and Project Nimbus
Adidas selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud provider for its critical SAP workloads.31
- Project Nimbus: AWS, along with Google, is the winner of the $1.2B “Project Nimbus” contract to provide cloud services to the Israeli government and military.32
- Capital Support: Adidas’s massive spend with AWS indirectly supports the infrastructure investment AWS has made in Israel. To fulfill the Nimbus contract, AWS launched the AWS Israel (Tel Aviv) Region, a $7.2B investment project through 2037.33
- Sovereignty Implication: By anchoring its digital operations in AWS, Adidas is part of the commercial client base that makes the Tel Aviv Region financially viable. The same cloud infrastructure (at a regional level) that hosts Adidas’s SAP data potentially shares physical or logical proximity with the IDF’s cloud workloads.
4.2. Google Cloud and Data Analytics
Adidas also utilizes Google Cloud for data analytics and marketing. Google is the co-signatory of Project Nimbus. Adidas’s migration of data to the cloud involves leveraging AI/ML capabilities that are often developed in these tech giants’ Israeli R&D centers (e.g., Google’s massive R&D presence in Haifa and Tel Aviv). The “Data Lakehouse” architecture Adidas uses 34 relies on tools like Databricks, which also has a growing presence in the Israeli R&D ecosystem.
4.3. The Integrator Layer
The digital transformation is not just software; it is people. The audit notes the presence of Israeli talent in key security and product roles at Adidas or its partners.
- Personnel: High-ranking security personnel often have backgrounds in Unit 8200 or similar IDF units. For instance, Hetz Ventures, a VC connected to the ecosystem, highlights partners with Unit 8200 backgrounds who advise or interact with Adidas leadership.35
- Cultural Complicity: This creates a “cultural complicity” where the security mindset of the organization is shaped by military intelligence doctrines (e.g., “offensive defense,” “zero trust,” “identity as perimeter”).
5. Financial Complicity: The Capital Pipeline
Beyond purchasing software, Adidas is structurally linked to the Israeli ecosystem through direct and indirect capital injection. This is perhaps the most explicit form of complicity: the investment of Adidas-derived wealth into the Israeli economy.
5.1. Hydra Ventures
Hydra Ventures is Adidas’s corporate venture capital (CVC) arm.
- Thesis: It invests in “digital consumer brands,” sustainable materials, and sports tech.
- Geography: Israel is explicitly listed as a target geography for Hydra Ventures.36 This signifies a corporate mandate to seek out and capitalize on Israeli innovation.
- Portfolio: Hydra has explored investments in “digital twins,” “smart fabrics,” and “biometrics,” sectors where Israeli startups like WSC Sports and Playsight dominate.
5.2. The Dassler Connection: leAD & OurCrowd
The Adi Dassler International Family Office (ADIFO), run by the grandchildren of Adidas’s founder, established the leAD Sports accelerator to honor the founder’s legacy.
- The Partnership: leAD launched the ADvantage fund ($50M) in a joint partnership with OurCrowd, Israel’s most active venture capital platform.38
- Strategic Bond: OurCrowd is deeply embedded in the Israeli state innovation policy, often co-investing with the Israel Innovation Authority. By partnering with OurCrowd, the Dassler family (and by extension, the Adidas legacy) is directly funneling capital into the Israeli sports-tech and wellness-tech ecosystem.
- Mechanism: The fund invests in early-stage startups. This provides critical seed capital to Israeli entrepreneurs, many of whom are fresh out of military service, helping them commercialize military-grade technologies (like computer vision) for the sports market.
5.3. WSC Sports: Monetizing the Highlight Reel
Adidas has a documented partnership with WSC Sports, an Israeli AI company that automates video highlights.41
- The Tech: WSC Sports uses AI to analyze live sports feeds, identify key moments (goals, dunks), and automatically generate highlight clips for social media.
- The Connection: Adidas uses WSC Sports to generate content for its sponsored teams and leagues (like Major League Soccer). This partnership monetizes the “highlight reel” culture, using AI developed in Tel Aviv to drive brand engagement for Adidas globally. It is a direct commercial relationship that boosts the revenue of a flagship Israeli tech firm.
6. Strategic Assessment: The Digital Complicity Score
6.1. The “Innovation Washing” Mechanism
Adidas utilizes “Sports Tech” and “Retail Innovation” as euphemisms that often mask the integration of surveillance technologies.
- Observation: Technologies designed for tracking suspects (facial recognition, gait analysis, communications interception) are rebranded by vendors like Trigo, Trax, and BriefCam as “Personalization,” “Frictionless Checkout,” and “Consumer Insights.”
- Effect: Adidas acts as a laundromat for dual-use technology. By deploying Trigo or Trax in civilian stores, Adidas normalizes the presence of advanced surveillance, making it socially acceptable. This commercial success then validates the valuation of these Israeli firms, allowing them to reinvest in R&D that flows back to the military sector.
6.2. Supply Chain Vulnerability and Lock-In
The heavy reliance on the Unit 8200 stack (Check Point, Wiz, SentinelOne) creates a “Vendor Lock-in.” Adidas cannot easily divest from Israel without ripping out its entire cybersecurity infrastructure. This dependency is a form of strategic complicity; Adidas’s own security is now tied to the stability and technological edge of the Israeli state. The more Adidas invests in these tools, the more it requires the Israeli tech sector to remain robust, aligning its corporate interests with the geopolitical interests of Israel.
6.3. Grading Digital Complicity
We apply the Digital Complicity Scale (DCS) to rank Adidas:
- Level 1 (Incidental): Occasional use of commodity hardware.
- Level 2 (Transactional): Standard procurement of software.
- Level 3 (Integrated): Technology is embedded in critical workflows.
- Level 4 (Strategic): Active partnership, co-development, and dependency.
- Level 5 (Systemic): Financial investment, structural reliance, and normalization of dual-use tech.
Adidas Assessment: Level 5 (Systemic)
- Reasoning:
- Structural Reliance: The cybersecurity stack (Check Point, Wiz, SentinelOne, CyberArk) is critical to business continuity. The removal of these tools would leave Adidas vulnerable to existential cyber threats.
- Surveillance Normalization: The deployment of Trigo and Trax actively proliferates Israeli surveillance tech into civilian life, testing and refining algorithms that track human movement.
- Financial Injection: Direct VC investment via Hydra Ventures and the Dassler family’s partnership with OurCrowd actively capitalizes the ecosystem, providing the “fuel” for the next generation of dual-use startups.
- Ideological Alignment: The “Project Future” digital transformation aligns perfectly with the “Startup Nation” narrative, validating the Israeli tech sector as the premier partner for global enterprise.
7. Conclusion
The technographic audit concludes that Adidas AG operates with a high degree of digital complicity. Its leadership has effectively outsourced the company’s digital security and retail innovation to the Israeli technology sector. This entanglement is multifaceted, spanning from the defensive code protecting the company’s IP (Check Point, Wiz) to the offensive algorithms tracking its customers in stores (Trigo, Trax).
For stakeholders concerned with the ethics of the supply chain, Adidas represents a significant node of support for the Israeli economy, particularly its high-value technology and surveillance export sectors. The company’s digital transformation is fueled by the same technologies that power the “Start-Up Nation’s” military edge, creating a feedback loop where consumer sneaker revenue indirectly subsidizes the development of advanced surveillance and cyber-warfare capabilities.
Appendix: Key Vendor Profile Summary
| Vendor |
Domain |
Origin/Affiliation |
Adidas Usage |
Dual-Use Risk |
| Check Point |
Cybersecurity |
Tel Aviv / Unit 8200 |
Firewall / Threat Intel |
DPI technology used for censorship/surveillance; “Protection Racket” dynamic. |
| Wiz |
Cloud Security |
Tel Aviv / Unit 8200 |
Cloud Infrastructure Security |
“God-mode” cloud visibility; high capital flow to founders; Co-development. |
| SentinelOne |
Endpoint Security |
Tel Aviv / Unit 8200 |
EDR / Device Control |
Kernel-level access; AI behavioral models; Autonomous response. |
| Trigo |
Retail Tech |
Tel Aviv |
Autonomous Stores |
Computer vision tracking of non-consenting subjects (Gait analysis). |
| Trax |
Retail Tech |
Israel/Singapore |
Shelf Monitoring |
Digitization of physical space; tracking; Distinct from Trax Apparel. |
| BriefCam |
Video Analytics |
Israel |
Surveillance Analysis |
“Video synopsis” used by police/military; listed as surveillance vendor. |
| WSC Sports |
Media Tech |
Israel |
Automated Highlights |
AI content generation; brand engagement monetization. |
| OurCrowd |
Venture Capital |
Jerusalem |
Partner (via leAD) |
Funding vehicle for Israeli tech ecosystem; State-linked investment. |
| Nice / Cognigy |
CX / AI |
Israel |
Customer Service AI |
Voice analytics; origins in intelligence recording. |
| CyberArk |
Identity |
Israel |
Privileged Access |
Securing administrative credentials; Insider threat tech. |
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