Adidas to move design unit to New York City

29 settembre 2014

2 min di lettura

(AGI) - Herzogenaurach, Sept 29 - Usually a young and creativedesigner opts to live in a big city full of distractions ratherthan in a small rural German town. This is one of the reasonswhy Nike is continuing to cut into Adidas' market share. Theheadquarters of the famous U.S. sports brand is located nearPortland, the Oregon capital considered one of the meccas ofthe 'hipster' culture. As a consequence, Nike has a much easiertime finding new talent, while its German competitor hasencountered difficulties attracting designers toHerzogenaurach, a town with a population of 24,000, whereAdidas is headquartered. Thus, the company has decided to openan office in Brooklyn, the hottest area in New York City, whereits concentration will be on group "creative" activities. AsAdidas Human Resources head Steve Fogarty explained, "We need alot of that top talent that is cutting-edge. Ideally, they areworking in the tech industry, in marketing organisations or arecoming from top competitors. We need an environment thatappeals to them." He added, "Designers tend to gravitate tovery large, international cities like Berlin, Amsterdam, Londonand it is a bit harder to convince them to move to the centreof Germany." The man at the very centre of this smallrevolution is Paul Gaudio, recently promoted to the position ofAdidas global creative director by Eric Liedtke, the Americanhead of the Adidas worldwide brand since March. Gaudio wasrecently transferred from Herzogenaurach to the Portland area(which is becoming the global hub of the sportswear industry),where the German company employs less than a thousand peopleversus Nike's 8,500 employees. Last week, Gaudio announced the2015 opening of a creative center in Brooklyn to be headed bythree young designers formerly with Nike. They will be taskedwith the creation of new shoe models. The NYC center will be inaddition to the company's similar facilities in Shanghai, Tokyoand Rio de Janeiro. Nevertheless, most Adidas designers willremain in Herzogenaurach. Adidas shares have lost one-third oftheir value since the beginning of the year, and 2014 hasalready been characterized by three 'profit warnings'. Thecompany's poor performance is the direct consequence of itsbackpedalling in the American market, especially in the golfproduct segment. .