Adidas looks to harness Instagram, Snapchat fans

Frankfurt

PASSED over for the top job, Adidas AG's global brands director Eric Liedtke plans to stick around under his new boss and has fresh marching orders - translate the sporting-goods maker's digital street cred into sales.

Mr Liedtke, who lost out to former Henkel AG leader Kasper Rorsted in a race to succeed chief executive officer Herbert Hainer, is now turning his attention to a different battle as he seeks to make it easier for Instagram and Snapchat followers to buy popular sneaker styles.

His end goal is to make sure the resurgent company's products and partnerships keep fuelling one of the biggest corporate turnarounds of the year.

"Adidas is my life's work and I'm not ready to run away from it because I didn't win," Mr Liedtke, an American-born Adidas lifer, said in an interview. "My job is to keep it sustainable. If you think the analysts are nervous about it being sustai…