Struggling sneaker giant Adidas has found its new CEO in Bjørn Gulden, the head of rival shoe brand Puma.
Gulden, 57, has served as Puma’s CEO since 2013. He will join Adidas — headquartered, like Puma, in the German town of Herzogenaurach — beginning Jan. 1, 2023, the company said in a news release Tuesday (Nov. 8).
Thomas Rabe, chair of Adidas’ supervisory board, said in the release that Gulden brings with him close to 30 years’ of experience in the sporting goods and footwear space.
“As a result, he knows the industry extremely well and draws on a rich network in sport and retail,” he said, adding that Gulden had spent seven years with Adidas in the 1990s.
Adidas announced in August that its supervisory board and CEO Kasper Rorsted had agreed that Rorsted would step down. Rorsted will leave the company at the end of the week, and Chief Financial Officer Harm Ohlmeyer will serve as interim CEO for the remainder of the year, according to the release.
“After three challenging years that were marked by the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and geo-political tensions, it is now the right time to initiate a CEO transition and pave the way for a restart,” Rabe said in a separate statement.
The company’s challenges continued through October, when Adidas announced its profits would be down this year thanks to lower-than-anticipated sales and an overload of inventory.
Read more: Adidas Cuts Profit Forecast Amid Low Sales, High Inventory
In a message to investors, the company said its new outlook is based on “a further deterioration of traffic trends in Greater China as well as a significant inventory build-up as a result of lower consumer demand in major Western markets since the beginning of September.”
Adidas also found itself in the middle of a public feud with rapper Kanye West — who teamed with the company to create the Yeezy shoe brand — following several attempts to settle disputes with the hip hop mogul.
The company later cut all ties with West after the rapper made anti-Semitic remarks on a podcast and his Twitter feed. Adidas has said the decision to cease production and sales on the Yeezy line will cost it $246 million.
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