All Obituary articles
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News briefs
One of Nike’s ‘unsung heroes’ has passed away
Douglas Houser, whom Phil Knight calls ‘an unsung hero’ of Nike, dies at 89.
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Former Nordica president Franco Vaccari has passed away
Source: private Franco Vaccari Franco Vaccari, a former shareholder of the Tecnica Group, passed away unexpectedly on March 11, 2023, at 83, according to Tecnica Group information. Vaccari was one of the most important entrepreneurs in the history of the so-called Sportsystem district of Montebelluna in the ...
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German ski racing icon Rosi Mittermaier passes away at 72
Former German ski racer Rosi Mittermaier has died. With her two gold medals at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, “Gold Rosi,” as she was subsequently known, mesmerized all of Germany. Her family told Bayerischer Rundfunk that Mittermaier fell asleep peacefully at the age of 72 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Jan. ...
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DC Shoes co-founder and pro driver Ken Block dies in snowmobile accident
Ken Block, the co-founder of DC Shoes, died in a snowmobile accident in Utah. He was 55 years old.
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McFit founder presumed dead in plane crash
Responders searching for a missing private plane carrying five German passengers off the coast of Costa Rica found two dead bodies in the sea, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Oct. 23, citing the Ministry of Public Security. Earlier, about 28 kilometers from the Limón airport, parts of the fuselage, seats ...
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Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz dies at 78
Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of Red Bull, passed away on Oct. 22, 2022, at the age of 78 after a long illness. Mateschitz has shaped sports worldwide with his company and his marketing strategy. His company published an email that it had sent to its staff on Saturday: Dear ...
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President of the Italian Sports System Association and former Scarpa CEO passes away at age 49
Andrea Parisotto, the president of Italy’s Sportsystem association and of Fondazione Museo dello Scarpone e della Calzatura Sportiva (Museum of ski boot and sport shoe) in Montebelluna, died of sudden illness on Oct 13. He was only 49 years old. From 1994 to 2018, Parisotto worked at mountain shoe specialist ...
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Obituary: Peter Moore
Peter Moore, who shaped Nike’s and Adidas’ product design in the 1980s and 1990s, passed away on April 29 at the age of 78. After working freelance as a design consultant for Nike since 1977, Moore joined Nike in 1983 as its first creative director, working with Bruce Kilgore to ...
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Adriano Testa, former president of FEDAS, has passed away
Adriano Testa, a former president of the European sporting goods federation (FEDAS), has passed away, aged 86. Inheriting the reputed Testa Sport sports store in St. Moritz from his father, he ran it from 1964 to 1996. As a member of ASMAS, the Swiss sporting goods retailers’ association, he acted ...
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Nike and others pay tribute to Virgil Abloh upon his death
Virgil Abloh, the visionary American fashion designer behind the nine-year-old Off-White brand of streetwear, died of cancer on Sunday Nov. 28, aged 41. While his collection consists mainly of clothing, including many sweatshirts and some jogging pants, Nike has been partnering since 2016 with Abloh on some special sneakers, with ...
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French pioneer in snowboard bindings has passed away
Robert Emery, a French pioneer in the development and manufacturing of snowboard bindings, has passed away at the age of 68. He inherited a factory that was making camping accessories and other products from his father Roger in 1948. The eponymous firm, Emery; then developed a series of ski bindings ...
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Stephen Proctor, chairman of SMS, has passed away
Stephen Proctor, chairman of Sports Marketing Surveys (SMS) for Europe and the U.S., has passed away. His family has asked to keep his age confidential. The British entrepreneur acquired the business in 1984 and led it for many years, helping to turn into one of the major consultancies in the ...
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Bernard Tapie, former owner of Adidas, has passed away
Bernard Tapie passed away on Oct. 3 after a four-year fight against cancer, only three days before a scheduled Oct. 6 verdict by a Paris Appeals Court over the controversial sale of Adidas to the late Robert Louis-Drefus in 1994. He was 78 years old. Tapie, a very popular French ...
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Obituary: Steve Ettridge, vice president of global merchandising at New Balance
New Balance has announced the death of Steve Ettridge, after a long and courageous battle with cancer. He was 56 year old, and he had been promoted to the position of vice president of global merchandising in February this year. Ettridge spent 27 years at the Boston-based athletic footwear company, ...
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Decathlon’s communication director has passed away
We deeply regret the death on Sept. 5 of Xavier Rivoire, who has been in charge of international communication for Decathlon in the past few years as Decathlon United Media Leader. He was 53 years old. The cause of his death has been described as having been “brutal.” Rivoire joined ...
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Running legend Ron Hill has passed away
Ron Hill, the legendary British runner who founded the Ronhill brand of performance sports clothing and one of the greatest marathon runners of all time, died in his hometown of Hyde, Cheshire, England, on May 23. He was 82 years old. In May 2018, he had announced that he had ...
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Influential German retail manager passes away
Hugo Laumann, a German manager dedicated to the promotion of traditional small and medium-sized independent sporting goods retailers, passed away on April 30 at the age of 92. As its general manager, he helped build up the German sporting goods retailers’ association, VDS, into an organization whose strong voice was ...
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Vans co-founder passes away
Paul Van Doren, a co-founder of Vans, has passed away on May 6 at the age of 90, shortly after the publication of his biography, titled “Authentic.” He started as a service boy at a rubber factory at the age of 16. He acquired his independence in 1966 when he ...
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Horst Widmann of Puma and FESI has died
Horst Widmann, a former top executive of Adidas and Puma and a former president of the Federation of the European Sporting goods Industry (FESI), has passed away. He was 80 years old. The highly diplomatic and kind-hearted executive was elected to lead FESI in 2004 and served multiple terms adding ...
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Waltraud Lenhart passes away after short severe illness
Source: Leki Waltraud Lenhart After the tragic plane accident in 2012,in which Klaus Lenhart lost his life, the German family-owned pole specialist Leki has now been hit by another tragedy. After a short and serious illness, Waltraud Lenhart, managing partner of Leki, has died unexpectedly at the ...