The grandsons of Adi Dassler, founder of German-based sports brand adidas, are celebrating their grandfather’s legacy through a new program called the leAD Sports Accelerator, which was founded earlier this year.
“How would (Adi) innovate today? Well, he would probably be supporting startups across innovation,” Nathalie Sonne, Head of Program at leAD Sports Accelerator said regarding the grandsons’ decision to launch the accelerator.
Currently, Sonne and her colleagues are fielding applications from early-stage startups for the first three-month cohort that begins later this September in Berlin. She explained that leAD’s initial thinking was that the first group of 15 companies would hail mostly from the Middle East, Europe and Asia without much communication efforts on their end being toward the United States.