David Rosenthal: belief

Transcript context

…And eventually their only client. Eventually, Adidas buys the company, moves their North American headquarters to Portland, Oregon and makes Strasser the CEO of Adidas America. Incredibly, tragically, this is just terrible. Eight months into the job, Strasser has a massive heart attack and dies, I believe, at age 46. It's just terrible. The betrayal that this engenders is irreversible. Ben, you talked about earlier, the Nike culture. There's a quote from Jeff Johnson, Blue Ribbon employee number one who I think had already left the company at this point. He's asked in the book, Just Do It, about Rob becoming CEO of Adidas. He says, "I know they, Adidas, aren't what they once were, but Adidas people were the Huns. I would starve to death before I would work for Adidas." When Rob dies, Phil does not attend his funeral. It's really just heartbreaking. There's a quote that sums it up in this Portland monthly article that talks about why Strasser isn't known to many people outside the company and why his role feeds into history. They say, why? Because his work was vital to both, which makes it incredibly difficult to neatly write him into the mythology of either one. For Adidas, it was a brand revival conceived and executed by a fat American ex-Nike guy and his artsy partner. For Nike, Strasser's over achievements are overshadowed, if not severely tarnished because he was a traitor. From Phil Knight, it might have been okay if he had just quit, but he went to work for Adidas, an intolerable betrayal. I never forgave him.…

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