Rupert Campbell Stepping Down as Head of Adidas North America
This story was updated on Sept. 9 at 5:44 p.m.
More change is coming to Adidas.
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“We regret to inform you that Rupert Campbell, president Adidas North America, has decided to leave Adidas to pursue other opportunities,” the company said in an internal announcement, which was obtained by WWD on Monday.
That’s another big shift for Adidas, which was already in the midst of major transformation.
The company is still settling in under chief executive officer Bjørn Gulden, who took the helm at the start of this year and is rebuilding from the implosion last year of the Yeezy partnership and the split from rapper-cum-designer Ye amid his antisemitic rants.
Campbell has had a long run at Adidas, taking posts of increasing responsibility, starting as retail director in the company’s Market North unit in 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile. After a three-year stretch leading the Lucozade Powerleague football league in Glasgow, he returned to Adidas in 2018 to become managing director Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, where the company said he “successfully led the business and recorded double-digit sales growth.”
He became president of North America in January 2022, right before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The North American business at the time had been struggling with complaints that Black employees faced discrimination at the company. In June 2020, a group of 100 of the division’s employees delivered management a 32-page deck titled “Our State of Emergency.”
Working to heal those wounds — while strengthening the business — was a priority when Campbell, a British national, came to North America.
“As a people-first leader, whose values are based around inclusion and diversity, Rupert, together with his team, has established strong relationships with partners and stakeholders and built a dynamic North America Game Plan for how to win in this very important, but also very challenging marketplace,” said the internal announcement, signed by Arthur Hoeld, executive board member, and Eveline Noya, senior vice president of human resources, who both work in the company’s global sales function.
“Throughout his tenure, Rupert has remained focused on building a foundation for quality and sustainable growth that is centered on amplifying sport and culture,” they said. “Rupert has played an integral role in early successes of the Game Plan such as the resigning and strengthening of our Major League Soccer partnership, the historic Name Image and Likeness agreements with female collegiate athletes and cementing our spot as the pioneering sport to culture brand with Run-D.M.C. and Hip Hop 50.”
While Adidas’ partnership with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, predated Campbell’s time in North America, the executive played a role in trying to calm the waters when things went south — and hateful — and the brand was seen as slow to respond to the situation.
Campbell addressed the controversy in a November 2022 address to the Anti-Defamation League, which was archived on the anti-hate group’s YouTube channel.
“I’m the proud son of first-generation Caribbean immigrants,” he said. “I consider myself a global citizen and for me this means appreciating the unique backgrounds and perspectives of all people, but most of all, standing for love, standing for love and against all forms of hate. It also means making sure our team members in Adidas feel a strong sense of belonging and doing everything I can do to ensure we never lose touch with our company values.
“At Adidas we are guided by our values of fairness, mutual respect and diversity, equity and inclusion,” Campbell said. “There is no place for antisemitism, racism and hatred within sport, within Adidas or within society.
“And we in Adidas, we fully understand that this may not be apparent to you given the recent events, but let me address that,” he said. “First, we acknowledge that we don’t always get things right. We are not perfect. But in this case, without a doubt we made the right decision. We know that without a doubt. The racist and antisemitic hate speech by our former partner violated our values. We took action to begin dismantling the partnership. This took time given the complexity of the partnership, but we remain committed to living our values.”
In a separate memo to his team, Campbell said: “My focus, together with you all, has been on building a foundation for quality and sustainable growth that is centered on amplifying sport and culture. This has come to life with the North America Game Plan, which will continue to serve us well as it is executed.”
Campbell’s last day will be Oct. 27 and Hoeld will take direct oversight of the North American business until a full-time successor is found.
A spokesperson for Adidas confirmed the departure.
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