Adidas has been slow to branch into digital fitness compared to many of its competitors, but the company has made a significant leap forward today with its purchase of Austrian fitness app maker Runtastic for €220m (£155m).

Runtastic operates on a multi-app strategy, with over 20 apps covering a wide variety of endurance, health and fitness activities. The company boasts over 140m downloads and 70m registered users worldwide, and is available in 18 languages, providing Adidas with a global platform to exploit.

“Digital technologies are providing new capabilities and insights to help athletes of all levels take control of their sporting destiny – whether improving their performance, sharing their experiences, or creating their own great social moments of sport,” said Herbert Hainer, CEO of the Adidas Group.

Runtastic will remain as an independent entity within the Adidas Group, and will continue to operate from its offices in Linz, Vienna and San Francisco, with little changing for existing app users in the short term, and updates and new app releases continuing as planned.

“Adidas is the perfect strategic partner for Runtastic and we are very eager to leverage our business in new and unique ways in the future,” said Florian Gschwandtner, CEO and co-founder of Runtastic.

“By bringing cutting-edge input from our leading position in the digital space to one of the great world leaders in the sports and fitness industry, I am personally looking forward to pleasing and surprising new and loyal users with the best products in the world. Together, we will make exceptional and unexpected things happen.”