Aqxle

Commerce Graph · Adidas & running publishers

Editorial-first vs pure-affiliate: two running publishers, two routing engines

7.73M

outbound links analysed

3

AI providers compared

Jul 2026

window

Adidas is the #2 athletic brand in AI answers on both platforms tracked here — 48% visibility on Gumshoe and 49% on Profound. Nike leads both. In the top-10 domains AI models cite for running-shoe queries, Runner's World and RunRepeat are the only two third-party publishers that appear on both lists. They route demand in almost opposite ways.

TL;DR

  • Runner's World keeps 86.6% of its outbound inside the Hearst graph and is only 3.1% commercial.
  • RunRepeat is 98.6% commercial — 44.0% to Amazon and 40.9% to affiliate networks.
  • Adidas ranks #2 on both AI trackers, but only two publishers appear in both top-10 citation lists.

Read the flow left to right. How we measure this.

1

Gumshoe leaderboard

80 prompts · 64 brands

Nike73%
Adidas48%

38 mentions · rank #2 of 64

Gap to leader−25 pts
Lead over New Balance+9 pts
Brands within 10-pt band3

New Balance, Under Armour, ASICS

2

Profound leaderboard

389 brands · 3 AI surfaces

Nike64%
Adidas49%

average visibility · rank #2 of 389

Gap to leader−15 pts
Lead over Brooks+5 pts
Brands within 10-pt band1

Brooks

3

Cited sources

Top 10, both providers

Brand-owned domains in Gumshoe top 104 of 10

adidas.com #1 at 4.7%

Editorial & community in Profound top 107 of 10

YouTube 8.0% · Reddit 3.7%

Publishers on both lists2

Runner's World & RunRepeat

Runner's World#4 / #3

3.9% Gumshoe · 3.4% Profound

RunRepeat#9 / #4

1.8% Gumshoe · 3.2% Profound

4

Outbound composition

Total links by bucket

Runner's World — inside Hearst graph86.6%

of 7.18M outbound links

Runner's World — commercial3.1%

224K commerce links

RunRepeat — commercial98.6%

537K of 544K outbound links

5

Commerce slice

Normalized to 100%

RunRepeat → Amazon44.0%
RunRepeat → affiliate networks40.9%
RunRepeat → retailer & brand DTC15.1%
Runner's World commerce links224K

of 7.18M total outbound

RunRepeat affiliate-network links223K

vs 68K for Runner's World

6

Merchant resolution

What each engine rewards

RunRepeat — marketplace + network routing84.9%
RunRepeat — retailer / brand destinations15.1%
Runner's World — internal Hearst routing86.6%
Runner's World — commercial routing3.1%

Want the row-level data behind this table? Email hello@aqxle.ai and we will send it.

Findings

What the stack rewards

  1. 01

    Runner's World and RunRepeat are cited by AI at comparable rates but monetize on opposite models. Treating them as one 'publisher' channel hides that entirely.

  2. 02

    Runner's World links out 7.18M times and keeps 86.6% inside the Hearst graph. Winning a Runner's World mention mostly moves a reader deeper into Hearst, not to a cart.

  3. 03

    RunRepeat links out 544K times and 98.6% of it is commercial. It is effectively an affiliate engine with editorial attached — 44.0% of commerce links go to Amazon.

  4. 04

    Adidas is #2 on both trackers, yet Gumshoe's top 10 is 40% brand-owned domains while Profound's is 70% editorial and community. The same brand strength converts very differently by surface.

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Method

Gumshoe report 44360 (Adidas, Apr 23 2026) · Profound summarized_export + citations_data (Apr 23–29 2026) · Semrush outbound-link exports for runnersworld.com and runrepeat.com. Independent public benchmark analysis — no client endorsement or partnership implied.

Read Commerce Graph Method v1.2

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