In an e-mail to Adidas and Reebok retail employees Monday morning, Adidas Group CEO Kasper Rorsted wrote that the company is not yet shuttering its U.S. stores because of the coronavirus.
“We have to keep the company going and open for business to ensure that we can pay our monthly bills and salaries to everyone,” Rorsted wrote in the e-mail obtained by Yahoo Finance, “Closing down is easy, staying open in a healthy environment requires courage, persistence and focus.”
The decision comes as Nike, Under Armour, New Balance, Foot Locker, L.L. Bean, Lululemon, REI, Patagonia, Columbia Sportswear, along with a number of other retailers outside the active lifestyle space have decided to close its doors for at least two weeks.
Rorsted went on to write, “For all coronavirus-related decisions, we will—as a general principle—follow local regulations as different regions/countries/markets are impacted at a different level at any point in time. In all regions and countries where legislation allows, we expect the leadership teams to be working from our offices on a daily basis… Where work is conducted from home, we ask for your utmost focus and dedication to do your job as good as possible every day.”
In a follow-up, an Adidas spokesperson told Yahoo Finance that Adidas may still be closing stores. The spokesperson said, “As of now, we continue to implement local authorities’ guidelines. These might differ, depending on the country or region.”
Photo courtesy Foot Locker
