Adidas also in the record hunt in 2013

This is what CEO herbert hainer told the "suddeutsche zeitung" (thursday). In 2015, the group, which in addition to the adidas brand also includes reebok and taylor-made, aims to generate sales of 17 billion euros. "The euro crisis has made it more challenging to achieve these numbers," hainer said.

Especially in southern europe the situation is difficult. "The high unemployment, the economic problems, that doesn’t necessarily help us," said hainer, who is now the most senior chief executive of a DAX-listed company. "On the other hand, we are growing in america, russia, china and also in europe as a whole."

Adidas therefore also expects record sales for 2013. In a year without any major sporting events, hainer is focusing primarily on new products, such as a new type of running shoe.

Hainer rejected criticism from human rights organizations about working conditions and allegedly too low wages in mainly asian supply factories. "Our suppliers pay the minimum wage or more and have to meet all our strict conditions, otherwise they can’t produce for us at all," the adidas chief said. "Adidas can’t play the world’s policeman after all. The respective governments, whether democratically elected or not, set minimum wages. And these are the rules we play by."

At the same time, hainer conceded that there was a "trend towards europe", at least in the production of textiles. Adidas already had textiles produced in turkey and other southern european countries. Because textiles were becoming more and more fashionable, but also more and more fast-moving and more and more outdated. "From turkey you can deliver to all of europe in 48 to 72 hours.".

In the case of shoes, however, he could not imagine a relocation of production to europe. "Almost the entire know-how has migrated to asia, and it’s not easy to get it back."