Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted Is Stepping Down in 2023

It has been less than a week since Foot Locker, Inc. CEO Dick Johnson announced his retirement and now, another top footwear executive is leaving their post.

Adidas has announced today that its current CEO, Kasper Rorsted, has mutually agreed with the brand’s Supervisory Board to relinquish his position sometime in 2023. While specific details about Rorsted’s departure weren’t revealed, both Rorsted and the Adidas Supervisory Board pointed to a “restart” as one of the factors for his exit. Rorsted’s future with the company was not announced.

“We would like to thank Kasper for his major achievements. During his tenure since 2016 he has strategically repositioned the company and fast-forwarded its digital transformation,” Thomas Rabe, the chairman of the Supervisory Board of Adidas AG, said. “Under Kasper’s leadership Adidas has substantially advanced its digital capabilities and grown its online sales by a factor of more than five.”

According to the Three Stripes, the search for the replacement has begun, and Rorsted will remain CEO until a successor has been appointed. Rorsted has been the CEO of Adidas since January 2016, a role that was previously held by Herbert Hainer.

“Adidas is an iconic sports brand. As a company, we have achieved great progress in strategic areas of our business. I am proud of our achievements as a team,” Rorsted said about his departure. “The past years have been marked by several external factors that disrupted our business significantly. It required huge efforts to master these challenges. This is why enabling a restart in 2023 is the right thing to do – both for the company and me personally.”