Menu
People and Pop Culture

Adidas Group CEO Hainer Talks Euro 2012, Olympics, Sponsorship And $80 Shoes

Adidas Group CEO Herbert Hainer offered a wide-ranging Q&A with METRONIEUWS in which he talked about Euro 2012 and its importance to the brand, world sporting events, the direction sportswear is heading and what makes people spend so much money on sneakers.

Q: How important are Euro 2012 and the Olympics to adidas, both as a revenue source and a brand platform?
Hainer: Both are important because they have huge exposure around the world. Many million people will watch them, which makes them a great platform for our brand. But from the commercial perspective, they’re two different animals. The European Championship in football is a very good commercial opportunity because we’re the sponsor and outfitter of UEFA. The Olympic Games allow us to showcase our brand, to show that we’re the Olympic and performance brand and equip many different sports and athletes, but it doesn’t have an immediate commercial impact.

Q: What, from your perspective, will count as a success in Euro 2012 and the London Olympics?
Hainer: I hope two of our teams will make it to the European Championships final. That would give us additional opportunities, because people across Europe would get excited as well. But as far as I’m concerned, both the Olympics and Euro 2012 are already a success, because the products are selling well.

Q: What does it tell you about society when spectators will buy expensive jerseys of their national or club team? It doesn't make any logical sense that one buys the shirt just because one watches a game…
Hainer: I’m obviously not a psychologist, but my opinion is that people want to belong to somebody, to a family. The football club is to a certain extent a family. That has been the case for the past 50 years. You have always had die-hard fans who follow their teams and travel huge distances to watch them. They do it even though it might be a huge hassle and they might end up seeing a bad game in the rain. But they have this feeling of belonging. And nowadays, and that is a difference to the past, they also express that feeling by wearing the team shirt to express to the public, “I’m a fan of the team. I belong to this family.”

Q: Will smart shoes and shirts solve the global obesity problem?
Hainer: One of the reasons I’m very optimistic about the sporting goods industry is related to the fact that today more people are conscious about a healthy lifestyle. At the same time, we see obesity all over the world, even among children, and even in China. Twenty years ago that would have been hard to imagine. To fix this, we have to get people to move their bodies more, and that will obviously help our industry as well. Of course that is not the only problem -- they have to eat healthier as well. But doing sports is extremely important.

Q: So, in other words, what’s good for adidas is good for the world’s health?
Hainer: I’d say it the other way around: What’s good for the world population is good for us.

Q: Clothing chains compete by setting prices as low as possible, but people pay $80 for a pair of your shoes. What’s the secret?
Hainer: The consumer doesn’t pay $80 without thinking. You have to give him a reason. Over the past 30 years or so we’ve built up a lot of credibility, and products that we deliver to consumers have never disappointed them. For credibility consumers are willing to pay a bit more.

Q: You’re a football fan. How do you think goal-line technology will impact football?
Hainer: Referees need technical support to decide whether the ball was in or not, and to be honest, a technological solution will come one day, no matter what. A goal can decide a game, and the difference between a winner and loser can decide about millions of Euros. Goal-line technology would protect referees, too; they can’t see everything if there are five people crawling on the line and the ball is somewhere between them (METRONIEUWS, 6/13).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2012/06/14/People-and-Pop-Culture/Hainer-QNA.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2012/06/14/People-and-Pop-Culture/Hainer-QNA.aspx

CLOSE