Adidas has reshuffled its management to split more clearly the functions between its sports performance and fashion divisions. Bernd Wahler, a former Adidas executive, has been appointed to the new position of chief marketing officer for Sport Performance. Hermann Deininger, a steady old hand at Adidas, is taking up the same position for a new Sport Style division that groups the former Heritage and Style divisions.
Both Wahler and Deininger will report to Erich Stamminger, president and chief executive of the Adidas brand. Each will have his own team of product, brand marketing and sport marketing manager, sharpening their focus. Previously these functions were handled by executives who worked for all the segments covered by the Adidas brand.
In his former career at Adidas, which started in 1987, Wahler became marketing director of Adidas America and later global marketing manager, departing in 1998. After his interludes as chief executive of Bally and general manager of Nike Germany, he set up a sports marketing agency, Sportgeist, which strongly contributed to Adidas’ product and marketing plan around the 2006 football World Cup.
Deininger has held an unprintably long list of official functions at Adidas over the last 22 years, along with an unofficial position as a sort of “grey eminence” of the management board. In his latest position Deininger was head of global creative and brand direction for the Adidas brand, a position which has been removed as part of the latest reorganization.
Adidas former global product manager, Rolf Reinschmidt, is taking a 6-months sabbatical and he will return in another position. Eric Liedtke, former head of brand marketing for the Adidas brand, has seen his assignment somewhat reduced to deal with Sport Performance alone.
