Adidas: more complaints about kangaroos than about China
06/05/2008
The chief executive of adidas, Herbert Hainer, has defended his company’s decision to spend €70 million sponsoring the Beijing Olympics this summer. In an interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel he was critical of demonstrators in various cities around the world who have tried to disrupt the Olympic torch relay.
Some critics have called on adidas and other important sponsors of the event to ask China to enter into greater dialogue with Tibet. However, Mr Hainer said: “It’s okay if people use an event like this to proclaim their their political views, but it is my opinion that they do not have the right to disrupt the torch relay or to try to extinguish the flame.”
He said he had “no guilty conscience” about his company’s involvement and added: “If we had anything to hide we wouldn’t be sponsoring anything.”
He said he didn’t believe his company had suffered any damage to its global image. “In any case,” he said, “we’ve had more e-mail complaints in recent days about the use of kangaroo leather in our shoe products than about China.”
One of its most prominent sponsored athletes, David Beckham, has had to stop using adidas football boots made from kangaroo leather because of protests.
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