Kasper Rørsted (born 24 February 1962 in Aarhus) is the CEO of German sportwear firm Adidas.[1]
During high school, Rørsted played handball for Denmark’s national youth team. He went on to study in Copenhagen and at Harvard Business School.[2]
Rørsted joined Henkel as CEO in 2008. Under his stewardship, the group’s market capitalization quadrupled to more than €36 billion.[3][4][5]
In January 2016, it was announced that Rørsted would leave the company to become CEO of Adidas, replacing Herbert Hainer.[6][7]
At the 2018 World Economic Forum in Davos, Rørsted was one of the selected European CEOs who attended a dinner with President Donald Trump.[8]
Adidas AG (German: [ˈʔadiˌdas] AH-dee-DAHS; stylized as ɑdidɑs since 1949) is a multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the world, after Nike.[5][6] It is the holding company for the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade golf company (including Ashworth), Runtastic, an Austrian fitness technology company and 8.33% of German football club Bayern Munich. Adidas' revenue for 2016 was listed at €19.29 billion.[3]
The company was started by Adolf Dassler in his mother's house; he was joined by his elder brother Rudolf in 1924 under the name Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory. Dassler assisted in the development of spiked running shoes (spikes) for multiple athletic events. To enhance the quality of spiked athletic footwear, he transitioned from a previous model of heavy metal spikes to utilising canvas and rubber. Dassler persuaded U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens to use his handmade spikes at the 1936 Summer Olympics. In 1949, following a breakdown in the relationship between the brothers, Adolf created Adidas, and Rudolf established Puma, which became Adidas' business rival.[1]
Adidas' logo is three stripes, which is used on the company's clothing and shoe designs as a marketing aid. The branding, which Adidas bought in 1952 from Finnish sports company Karhu Sports, became so successful that Dassler described Adidas as "The three stripes company".[7][8][9] The brand name is uncapitalized and is stylized with a lower case "a".[10]
