adidas Employees Unite Against Racism to Spark a Company-Wide Movement

Time to make a change.

That’s what a coalition of 12 Black adidas leaders, including myself, said in June, after social unrest following the murder of George Floyd. After weeks of sharing our pain and frustration with each other in difficult, emotional conversations. After weeks of enduring collective emotional trauma from the suffering of countless Black men and women who have experienced the injustices of racism in the United States. We all felt obligated to act.

Black Lives Matter, period, and we at adidas embarked on an ongoing journey to answer the call for radical transformation that this moment in history demanded.

We lost no time putting our plan into action. We shared our commitments with all employees and encouraged them to join our efforts. It’s incredible to see teams and individuals across our company jump in and help us create lasting change for present and future generations. We’ve promised to keep lines of communication open and honest.

We wanted change and we’re making it by reimagining what is possible, what we can accomplish and how we can achieve it. It has been a staggering amount of work and it hasn’t always been easy, but we’re learning, growing and making progress – together. This is only the beginning.

I want to thank the other 11 members of the coalition, including Lauren Body, Raymond Boyd, Kofi Brown, Tony Crowell, Tony Holmes, Neamen Lewis, Cameron Mason, André Pinard, Aaron Seabron, Rashad Williams and Coiya Wilson.

I also want to thank everyone else involved with our United Against Racism work for their incredible commitment to their community and each other. And thanks to the teams across the brand for becoming champions of the United Against Racism plan. They’ve helped us move our culture forward and positively impact our communities.

Finally, I want to thank the North American senior leadership team and the Executive Board for their support and for rallying with us to make sure we create lasting change.

I am so honored to share this moment in history with everyone at adidas, and I can’t wait for everything that’s still to come.