Why Adidas Is Cool Again?

Four years on from a traumatic corporate fraud, Dave Thomas has big plans for the iconic sportswear brand in India

- Ashish Gupta

The story begins like a bar joke. An Indian man walks into an Adidas shop. But this, I’m assured, is a true story. The man asks for the latest model of Yeezy Boost, the much hyped high-tops designed by rapper Kanye West, but is told the product isn’t available.

What happens next stuns Dave Thomas, managing director of Adidas Group India, who witnesses the scene unfold at Originals, the company’s flagship lifestyle store, in Connaught Place, Delhi. The customer lambasts the store’s limited collection. The most expensive item, an earlier design of West’s Yeezy line, is a cool Rs 22,999 a pair. But the man is far from impressed. He asks why the store doesn’t stock the newest, trendiest, and costliest stuff Adidas has to offer. Bereft of pricier options, he settles for the pair of Yeezys that he had turned up his nose at.

The irony isn’t lost on Thomas who smiles as he narrates the anecdote. Before he came to India, Thomas, who has worked across several geographies in his 18 years at the company, had been fed horror stories about grinding poverty, a culture that neglects fitness, and stingy customers with little regard for the nuances of shoe technology. His early introduction to the Indian shopper would shatter those notions. Thomas, 44, says: “Anyone who has been to India even once from our organization thinks he is an expert. He feels he has a snapshot of what the country is, but that’s not true. India is a challenging and interesting puzzle.”