adidas, also known as The Three Stripes Brand, is a German sportswear company founded in 1949. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second-largest in the world, after Nike. The adidas Group consists of the Reebok sportswear company, 8.33% of the German football club Bayern München, and Runtastic, an Austrian fitness technology company.
- The adidas Story
- The adidas Shoe Collections
- The adidas Collaborations
- More About adidas
- The Future Of adidas
The adidas Story
In 1924, two brothers, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, founded a shoe company in Herzogenaurach, Germany called the Gebruder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory). They ran the company together successfully until 1948, when a rift compelled them to split the business.
Adolf named his company Adidas after his own name, blending Adi (a nickname for Adolf) and the first part of his last name, Das(sler). Rudolf similarly named his new business after himself, Ruda, though it was soon after changed to Puma. If you are interested, check out the movie “Adidas vs. Puma – That’s The Name Of The Game!”
For complete history of adidas, check out this official adidas history article.
The ADIDAS brand has a backronym of All Day I Dream About Sneakers, and this backronym wordplay has extended to other brands, such as Puma, jokingly said to stand for Piss Under My Ass.
The adidas Shoe Collections
In the early days, adidas achieved attention in the running, basketball and tennis spaces thanks to the American athlete Jesse Owens (1936), and later the Superstar collection (1969) and Stan Smith collection (1973) respectively. Other made-for-sports models like the adidas Top Ten collection (1979) and adidas Forum collection (1984) similarly became lifestyle staples in New York, Boston, Chicago, and other cities. adidas’ Superstar became the unofficial shoe of hip-hop in the 1980s largely due to RUN DMC’s superstardom.
Recent years have seen 3-Stripes-branded sneakers soar in popularity, in large part because of the Kanye West led adidas Yeezy sub-label and adidas Ultraboost, adidas NMD (short for Nomad), adidas 4D, adidas EQT, as well as adidas Tubular.
The adidas Collaborations
Adidas has pioneered high-fashion collaborations with well known designers, including Jeremy Scott, Yohji Yamamoto (Y-3), Stella McCartney, Alexander Wang, and Raf Simons. They have also reached out to several celebrities, such as Beyoncé (IVY PARK), Kanye West (Yeezy) and Pharrell Williams to create some of the company’s most notable sneakers.
In 2020, classic adidas silhouettes will continue to be reimagined by Prada and Craig Green. Elsewhere, partnerships with Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Jonah Hill and others will ensure adidas remains a global fashion brand.
More About adidas
adidas has its roots in Germany and is now a truly global company. Around the world, they have over 59,000 employees from about 100 nations. In 2019 adidas produced over 1.1 billion sports and sports lifestyle products with independent manufacturing partners worldwide and generated sales of € 23.640 billion. Here are some more interesting facts and figures.
The Future Of adidas
With the highest level of innovation, new technologies as well as the creative collaborations with designers, celebrities and other brands, adidas is poised to become the best sports brand in the world.
