History Of Adidas

The Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany headquarters of Adidas AG are a major player in the global sports footwear and clothing market. It ranks second globally behind Nike and first in Europe when it comes to producing athletic apparel. The Adidas Group, of which this holding company is a part, owns 8.33% of Bayern Munich, an Austrian football club, and Runtastic, a fitness technology business. The reported revenue for Adidas in 2018 was €21.915 billion.

In Adolf Dassler's mother's home, the firm was founded. By 1924, he had teamed up with his older brother Rudolf to form Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik.For a variety of sports, Dassler helped design spiked running shoes. Using canvas and rubber, he improved upon spiked sports footwear that had previously used hefty metal spikes. At the 1936 Summer Olympics, Dassler convinced American sprinter Jesse Owens to use his handcrafted spikes. After the brothers' partnership ended in 1949, Adolf started Adidas and Rudolf started Puma, which would later become Adidas's competitors.

Adidas' three stripes serve as a marketing tool, appearing on both apparel and footwear designs. Dassler dubbed Adidas "The three stripes company" after the brand's 1952 acquisition from Finnish sportswear manufacturer Karhu Sports—worth €1,600 plus two bottles of whiskey—became wildly popular.

Adolf "Adi" Dassler, upon his return from World War I, established the firm while manufacturing athletic shoes in the scullery or wash room of his mother's Herzogenaurach, Germany, home. The "Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory" was officially established in July 1924 with the addition of his elder brother Rudolf.The brothers sometimes had to utilize the power of a stationary bike to operate their machinery since the Herzogenaurach energy supply was inconsistent.

Athletes in a variety of sports used spiked running shoes, which Dassler helped create. He upgraded spiked sporting shoes by switching to canvas and rubber from a type that used hefty metal spikes.

At the 1936 Summer Olympics, Dassler convinced American sprinter Jesse Owens to use his handmade spikes. The world's athletes and coaches were familiar with Dassler shoes after Owens won four gold medals. The Dasslers were doing well financially; in the years leading up to WWII, they sold over 200,000 pairs of shoes annually.

In May of 1933, the two Dassler brothers became members of the National Socialist Motor Corps after joining the Nazi Party.Around 1935, Adolf became a Sportwart in the Hitler Youth and remained there until the war ended.

The firm mainly supplied the Wehrmacht with shoes during the war as it controlled the final athletic shoe manufacturing in Germany. Shoe manufacturing had to stop in 1943 because the company's resources were diverted to make anti-tank weaponry. Between the years 1942 and 1945, the company's two locations employed a minimum of nine enslaved workers.

In 1945, American troops came dangerously close to destroying the Dassler plant, which had produced anti-tank weaponry during WWII. Adolf Dassler's wife managed to persuade the American troops that the firm and its workers were only focused on producing sports shoes, therefore it was saved. After that, the American occupation troops started buying a lot of shoes from the Dassler brothers.

After their relationship deteriorated in 1947, the brothers Adolf and Rudolf formed separate businesses; Adolf formed Adidas AG from Adi Dassler on August 18, 1949, while Rudolf formed Ruda, subsequently renamed Puma, from Rudolf Dassler. All Day I Dream About Sports and All Day I Dream About Sex are two fake backronyms for the word "Adidas" that have become popularized in urban legends.

After its breakup, Adidas and Puma SE became bitter rivals in the corporate world. Because of the divisions that emerged in Herzogenaurach over the matter, the town came to be known as "the town of bent necks" because its residents were so preoccupied with checking the footwear of outsiders. Adidas backed the ASV Herzogenaurach club, while Rudolf lent his name to the town's other football team, 1 FC Herzogenaurach. The handymen who would visit Rudolf's house would always wear the same pair of shoes: Adidas. Rudolf would advise them to get a free pair of Pumas from the basement.Despite sharing a cemetery plot, the two brothers remain as far apart as possible since they were never able to make amends.

Among the West German national football team's Puma-clad players in the 1948 match, the first after WWII, were Herbert Burdenski, who scored the country's first goal. Four years down the road, in Helsinki, Finland, Puma's first Olympic gold medal winner was Luxembourgish 1500-meter runner Josy Barthel.

Puma sponsored German sprinter Armin Hary so that he could compete in the 100-meter final wearing Puma shoes at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Adolf was approached by Hary to pay for her previous Adidas purchases, but the shoe company turned down her request. The two Dassler brothers were shocked to see the German, who had won gold in Pumas, wear Adidas at the medal ceremony. Hary intended to profit from both, but the Olympic champion was forbidden by a furious Adi.

As the most high-profile incident in the Dassler brothers' feud, the "Pelé Pact" occurred when Puma and Adidas agreed not to sign a sponsorship deal with Pelé for the 1970 FIFA World Cup. This was because both companies believed that a bidding war for the world's most famous athlete would become too expensive. However, Puma eventually broke the pact and signed Pelé. Numerous business analysts attribute the brothers' animosity and competitiveness for building the sportswear sector into a multi-billion pound behemoth.

Chief Executive Herbert Hainer voiced hope for the year ahead as Adidas reported their biggest revenues ever by the end of 2012. These days, Adidas has offices all around the globe, including Herzogenaurach, Germany, as well as other branch offices in cities including London, Portland, Toronto, Tokyo, Australia, Taiwan, and Spain.

Adidas is the first shoe company to release a mobile app for bookings in January 2015. Customers may use the Adidas Confirmed app, which makes use of geotargeting technology, to get their hands on and reserve the brand's limited edition footwear.

The new McDonald's All-American jerseys for 2015 were introduced on March 24th, 2015 by Adidas. This is the third year running that players will wear short-sleeved jerseys constructed from the same airy, lightweight material as NBA uniforms.

Runtastic, a fitness technology company, was bought out by Adidas in August 2015 for around $240 million.

Adidas received $425 million from KPS Capital Partners in May 2017 for the sale of the TaylorMade golf firm, which included Ashworth.

The Authentic Brands Group acquired Reebok from Adidas in March 2022 for about $2.5 billion.

Kasper Rørsted, the CEO, was revealed to be stepping down in 2023 in August 2022 by the firm. February 2023 saw Bjørn Gulden's appointment as CEO.