Adidas swipes puma’s bjorn gulden
Adidas has hired Puma head Bjorn Gulden as its new chief executive officer, adding a new chapter to the decades-old rivalry between the two German sportswear makers. The 57-year-old Norwegian had served as senior vice president of apparel and accessories at Adidas in the 1990s before joining Puma, where he has been CEO since 2013.
Adidas Appoints Ex-Puma Chief Gulden as New CEO From January 1st
Both Adidas and Puma are based in the Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach, 22km northwest of Nuremberg. The companies were founded in the late 1940s by two brothers, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, who had a fierce rivalry.
Gulden, who has been given a five-year contract, will start his new position on January 1. Significantly, as the larger German sportswear company seeks to move on from a crisis over its terminated partnership with rapper Ye.
Notably, there has been a significant worry, about how Adidas will maintain the buzz around its shoes. Yeezy has accounted for nearly half of the company’s total profits in recent years. Predictably the projected revenue, reduced by €500 million ($502 million) for the remainder of this year, Adidas said Wednesday. An early test for Bjorn Gulden will be strategizing exactly how the brand will sell its existing unsold Yeezy products (of which it owns all related IP, designs, and colour ways) without the Yeezy name.
Thomas Rabe, chairman of Adida’s supervisory board, said in the statement,
“Gulden knows the industry extremely well and draws on a rich network in sport and retail.”
Current Adidas chief Kasper Rorsted will step down Friday and chief financial officer Harm Ohlmeyer will serve as interim CEO through the end of the year, the company said in a statement.
Last week, Adida said Gulden was a potential successor to Rorsted after Puma announced its CEO’s departure.
Puma named Arne Freundt as its new CEO effective immediately, leaving Gulden all set to take over at Adidas
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