Under Armour has hired former Adidas brand president Eric Liedtke to lead its corporate brand strategy, the company announced Tuesday morning.
Liedtke’s hire also includes the acquisition of his Portland-based sustainable streetwear brand, Unless Collective.
Liedtke will serve as the Maryland-based brand’s executive vice president of brand strategy from Under Armour’s Portland office, he told the Business Journal. The acquisition of Unless, which Liedtke founded in 2021, is expected to be completed later this week. Liedtke declined to share the company’s sale price.
“I'm committed to Portland, we talked very openly about those things. They’re here to support Unless and I am here to support Under Armour, so it's a very mutually beneficial relationship where we're going to scale and build both companies,” said Liedtke. “They share a vision for the future with us, and I'm super excited about joining (CEO Kevin Plank's) leadership team.”
Liedtke worked for Adidas for close to 30 years, starting in Adidas’ mailroom in 1994 before working his way up to director of footwear marketing. He then became senior vice president of sports brand marketing in 2006, and eventually brand president in 2014.
As brand president, Liedtke also worked closely with creators like Kanye West and his billion-dollar Yeezy line.
He left Adidas in 2019 to found Unless, saying it was nearly impossible to effect real, sustainable change in the industry with the position he was in. Unless’ product line — which consists of cotton T-shirts, sweatshirts, shorts, woven jackets and shoes — is either decomposable or biodegradable.
But scaling Unless with the help of a brand partner has always been Liedtke’s goal, he said. The threats of climate change continue to evolve each year, and Liedtke said the best way to ensure maximum sustainable impact is through brand collaboration.
"Ultimately, you've got to come outside of the big ship to be radically different and give yourself more permission to take a vision, run with it and build something new," Liedtke said.
“It's something that I was very adamant on as far as part of our journey with Unless. We always built it so that we could scale it with the urgency that the world requires, because we don't have a lot of time.”
Liedtke’s hire is part of a major movement of talent around and within the Oregon apparel industry in the last few years. It’s also part of the leadership shuffling at Under Armour after founder and former CEO Plank replaced former CEO Stephanie Linnartz, who led the company for just over a year.
"We are thrilled to welcome Eric and the Unless team to Under Armour. With Eric's best-in-class history of driving exceptional growth in the branded sports industry and an established reputation as an exceptional leader, his experience will be a tremendous asset in galvanizing Under Armour's brand strategy, refining our operating model, and ensuring that every facet of consumer engagement is moving our brand forward," Plank said in a press release.
Liedtke also joins Under Armour’s other recent hire in Portland, Yuron White, an ex-Nike VP who now oversees the company’s sportswear, running and basketball categories and is responsible for “creating both footwear and apparel to drive profitable growth and build exciting product.”
