Adidas CEO sees no crisis in China: paper

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German sporting goods company Adidas is not experiencing any slowdown in China, German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) quoted its Chief Executive Herbert Hainer as saying upon his return from a trip to the Asian country.

Global markets plunged earlier this week as a slump in Shanghai shares fueled worries over China's economic health and the potential effects on companies that have come to rely on the country as a major export market.

Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer, however, told FAZ that his company is proving resilient in the face of the economic downturn.

"We are not feeling any crisis in China," the paper quoted him as saying in an article published on Thursday.

Hainer said that shoppers in China are more likely to hold off buying big-ticket items such as cars than consumer goods that cost only $100.

"Sporting goods will remain in fashion (in China) and are in strong demand," Hainer said, "not least because the Adidas brand is a status symbol."

The company's sport-inspired fashion is popular in China, but it is at a disadvantage to Nike (NYSE: NKE) in the country because soccer -- the sport in which it has its roots -- is far less popular there than basketball, which its larger rival dominates.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by David Goodman)

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