Former Nike, Adidas Executive Peter Moore, 78
● Moore was integral to building Adidas America in the 1990s.
Peter Moore, a “true legend” in the athletic industry who helped to reinvent Nike and Adidas, died Friday at the age of 78.
Details of any memorial plans have not yet been announced, as Moore's family requested privacy at this time through a spokesperson Saturday. Having helped to reshape the athletic industry and influenced generations of creatives and executives, Moore and his career were impactful.
An inventive brand marketer, Moore was a graduate of Chouinard Art Institute. The bespectacled executive left an indelible mark on two of the leading sports brands by magnifying the importance of savvy and sound marketing and helping to elevate products from being just a pair of sneakers to knock around in. With his late business partner Robert Strasser, he created Sports Inc. in 1987. The company was acquired by Adidas AG in 1993 and laid the groundwork for Adidas America. In the years before top-tier corporate executives were mediatrained to relay brand messaging, Moore had a direct and plain-spoken style of communicating that never left any questions about where he stood on an issue.
In a statement released by an Adidas spokesman Saturday, the company acknowledged Moore's contribution to the sporting goods industry as being “a true legend and icon in our industry. It is impossible to overstate the impact he has had on Adidas. He will be greatly missed and his legacy will live on forever.”
The statement also noted: “The Adidas family is saddened by the passing of our dear friend Peter Moore. Our hearts are with Peter's family, friends and everyone who knew him.”
After running his own design studio in the 1970s, where he began working with Nike in 1977, Moore joined the brand as its first creative director six years later. He was instrumental in developing the branding and products of the Jordan brand, including the Air Jordan One. He was also widely known as creative director at Adidas America, as well as Strasser's successor following Strasser's death in 1993. After exiting Adidas America, Moore returned to running his own creative consultancy, called What's Ya Think Inc.?
A branding specialist, Moore created multiple logos for Nike and Adidas, including the latter's “mountain” logo, which was used for Adidas Equipment. The collection of footwear and apparel covered every discipline, was inspired by Adidas founder Adi Dassler's original approach and had the slogan “The best of Adidas.”
When the company started using email in the early 1990s, Moore urged employees in a memo to walk over and talk with colleagues directly versus emailing or phoning. Despite being introverted, Moore prized the power of in-person contact and listening.
In the sometimes-disputed debate about who should get credit for Michael Jordan's landmark 1984 deal with Nike that led to Air Jordans, the Jordan brand and a multibillion-dollar business, former Nike chairman Phil Knight credited Moore and Strasser as being the MVPs in the deal in a 2015 interview with USA Today. Both executives were at Nike when the deal came together after Jordan exited the University of North Carolina to join the National Basketball Association.
In response to that claim, Moore credited Strasser for being an MVP in the deal by deciding that Nike needed a basketball icon, when the sport was on the brink of becoming “a big, big marketing opportunity. The inner city kid was just beginning to become important. It all makes great sense today, 30 years later, but back then Rob's idea was thought to be risky, and so we kind of Just Did it,” Moore said in 2015.
The former athletic executive also named Sonny Vaccaro as the second MVP. But in the aforementioned 2015 interview, Jordan said that it was George Raveling, the assistant men's basketball coach for the U.S. team at the 1984 Olympics, who encouraged him to go to Nike. Raveling, who had an endorsement deal with Nike at that time, later introduced him to Vaccaro, Jordan said.
The back story of the Jordan brand — whatever that might be — hasn't lost its zeal with the public. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon recently announced plans to write a film based on Nike's efforts to sign a sneaker deal with Jordan.
In the fall of 1993, Moore became president and chief executive officer of Adidas America, the U.S. arm of Adidas AG. Maintaining his role as the brand's creative director, he took on the top leadership post a few weeks after the death of Strasser of a heart attack at the age of 46 in Munich while attending an international sales meeting. Moore said Strasser had “built a team in America that was committed to finishing out his dream of bringing Adidas back.” Developing a core group of men's running, basketball and tennis shoes and a limited spring collection of women's apparel were part of Strasser's plans that Moore followed through with.
John Fread, who previously led Adidas America's communications team, said Saturday: “Peter was an observant visionary. His creative genius laid in his ability to observe something, interpret a definition or a solution for it, and then transfer that to both visual and functional design.”
Moore is survived by his wife and three sons Devin, Dillon and Hagen. In lieu of flowers, his family asked that donations be made to the Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital or the Oregon Junior Golf Association.