When Kanye calls you on a Sunday night, you pick up. That was Eric Liedtke’s life for years as the head of global brands at Adidas, where he was instrumental in building the Yeezy brand and scaling the Adidas ecommerce platform to a multi-billion dollar business. After a 26-year corporate career, Liedtke gave it up and started from scratch as the CEO and co-founder of UNLESS Collective, a plant-based streetwear brand designed to leave zero plastic waste. Nathan Chan and Liedtke go deep into his war stories from Adidas, working with celebrity talent like Kanye, and why starting UNLESS was a humbling experience.
In this episode, you’ll learn:

How Liedtke climbed from a sweeper to a board member at Adidas

The origins of Yeezy, its growth, and what went wrong

That Adidas built Kanye a sample room in Calabasas

What Kanye taught him about branding

Why UNLESS partnered with skate, surf, and snow influencers

The different skills between a corporate leader and an entrepreneur

Why he thought starting a business would be easier

Why Kanye almost bought UNLESS

Why you always need to have a Plan B

Supplying t-shirts for Robert Downey Jr.

And much more product branding advice…


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