ADIDAS PROFILED IN FORBES: KIDS SAY THEY ARE "FLY"

     Adidas and company head Robert Louis-Dreyfus are profiled in
FORBES.  Joshua Levine examines how Louis-Dreyfus first acquired
15% of the company from French bank Credit Lyonnais for signing a
non-recourse note for $100M.  Louis-Dreyfus said adidas at that
point was "going down the drain," and the bank just wanted to
"cut their losses."  Louis-Dreyfus has since bought the rest of
the company, and then paid off all company debts by selling off
70% of the company in German stock for $1.3B.  The company went
public at 68 Deutsche Marks, and now earns 94 on the Frankfurt
stock exchange.  Louis-Dreyfus' windfall in the deal was an
estimated $500M-$1B.  He has doubled marketing spending to a
level at 11% of sales, and signed such spokespersons as the
Knicks' John Starks and the Nuggets' Jalen Rose.  Louis-Dreyfus
says he will move on from Adidas in '98.  He says selling shoes
requires getting into teenage minds, and as he is in his early
50s, he is not sure he is "the best guy to understand kids"
anymore (FORBES, 3/25 issue).