Incoming Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted visited CNBC and spoke about the company’s performance, including a 30 percent sales growth in the United States over the past year. The host pointed out the contrast of Adidas’s stock price (up 50%) versus Nike (down 20%) and Under Armour (down 26%) during 2016.
Below are some of the most interesting quotes from the interview. Keep in mind CNBC skews conservatively, thus the upbeat attitude on a Donald Trump presidency and one-sided negative commentary on Kanye West relative to his relationship with Nike.
- On why Adidas is performing so well: “We have really hot products and we’re performing well in all markets in the world.”
- On Donald Trump’s win: “We’re not concerned about the change in leadership in the U.S.”
- On why Adidas is hot: “One of the big differences is that we’ve moved a lot of our innovation for the U.S. to the U.S. so we’re becoming much more relevant to the U.S. consumer.”
- On choosing to stick with Reebok rather than sell the brand: “We can create more shareholder value by turning it around. We’ve grown our Reebok outside the U.S. in the last 14 quarters. I’m convinced we’re going to be able to turn it around and get it back to a growth scenario [like we have] outside the U.S.”
- On athlete endorsement: “You’re seeing much more spending with the top athletes with the top teams and you will continue to see an increase [in spending] with those.”
- On Taylor Made: “We’re in the process of selling it.”
- On ath-leisure peaking: “We’re seeing a slight slowdown, but not something we’re that really we’re worrying about. We’re seeing that the overall ath-leisure is still continuing to grow, particularly outside of the U.S. If you go to a European airport, you can see very clearly that the business people still dress very formal so we believe there’s a long way ahead of us.”
- On West’s health: “From a business standpoint, we’re extremely happy with the relationship. To his health, I think you need to speak to his manager.”
- On West being “notoriously difficult” in his relationship with Nike: “He has brought a lot of innovation into our products and newness, and i actually think the line in front of the store has proven the value he’s provided our relationship so we haven’t seen it that way.”
Watch the full interview below:
