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THE DASSLER BROTHERS (1920 – 1948)
1920 — Dassler Shoe Factory
Brothers Adolf “Adi” and Rudolf Dassler begin making shoes in their mother’s laundry room in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. The town will later become known as the “town of bent necks”—because residents look down to see which brand of shoes strangers are wearing.
1925 — Spiked Athletic Shoes
Adi Dassler develops a spiked running shoe for track and field athletes—a revolutionary concept for competitive performance footwear. He hand-forges the spikes from kitchen utensils during a time of post-WWI material shortages.
1936 — Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics
Adi Dassler persuades American sprinter Jesse Owens to wear his spikes at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Owens wins four gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler, and Dassler’s shoes receive enormous publicity—among the earliest instances of athlete endorsement in sports history.
1948 — The Brothers Split
A bitter falling-out—with disputed causes ranging from wartime allegiances to personal insults—causes Adi and Rudolf Dassler to dissolve their partnership. Rudolf crosses the Aurach river and founds Puma. Adi stays and founds Adidas.
FOUNDING & EARLY GROWTH (1949 – 1970)
1949 — Adidas Is Founded
Adolf “Adi” Dassler officially registers Adidas (a portmanteau of his nickname and surname) on August 18, 1949. The company’s first factory produces a shoe with the two design elements that will define the brand: leather upper construction and multiple stripes.
1950 — The Three Stripes
Adidas purchases the rights to the three-stripe design from Finnish company Karhu Sports for two bottles of whiskey and the equivalent of 1,600 euros—one of the greatest bargains in brand history.
1954 — West Germany World Cup
West Germany defeats heavily favored Hungary in the 1954 FIFA World Cup final, wearing Adidas boots equipped with screw-in studs—a technological advantage on the wet Bern pitch. The victory is later dramatized in the film The Miracle of Bern and cements Adidas’s reputation in football.
1960 — Trefoil Logo
Adidas introduces the now-iconic three-leaf trefoil logo, later used primarily on its Originals lifestyle line.
1966 — Adidas Football
Adidas supplies the official match ball for the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England—the first of many World Cups in which Adidas balls are used.
GLOBAL EXPANSION (1970 – 1993)
1972 — Munich Olympics
Adidas supplies equipment to athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, held in the company’s home country. The three stripes appear on the uniforms of roughly 80% of all Olympic athletes—a staggering brand penetration for a single games.
1978 — Adi Dassler Dies
Founder Adolf Dassler dies in September 1978. His son Horst Dassler takes the reins and aggressively expands Adidas’s global sports marketing operations, helping establish the modern model of sports sponsorship.
1984 — Run-DMC
New York hip-hop group Run-DMC begins wearing Adidas Superstar sneakers without laces as a street fashion statement. Their 1986 song “My Adidas” cements the brand’s place in hip-hop culture and leads to the first major sponsorship deal between a corporation and a hip-hop act—reportedly worth $1.5 million.
1986 — Horst Dassler Dies
Horst Dassler dies at 51, leaving Adidas without clear leadership. The company enters a period of financial and strategic instability, losing ground to Nike as it fails to connect with American youth culture.
1990 — Financial Turmoil
Adidas is sold to a consortium of investors led by Bernard Tapie. The company accumulates significant debt and struggles to compete as Nike dominates the athletic footwear market with the Air Jordan line.
REINVENTION & COMEBACK (1993 – 2010)
1993 — Robert Louis-Dreyfus Takes Over
French businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus becomes CEO and begins a radical restructuring of Adidas, outsourcing manufacturing, slashing costs, and refocusing the brand on performance sports and lifestyle.
1995 — Adidas Goes Public
Adidas is listed on the Frankfurt and Paris stock exchanges, raising capital for a major marketing push designed to challenge Nike’s dominance.
1997 — Equipment Line and Endorsements
Adidas launches its Equipment line of high-performance products and signs major endorsement deals, including with David Beckham, who becomes one of the brand’s most prominent ambassadors through the 2000s.
1997 — Salomon Acquisition
Adidas acquires the Salomon Group, gaining ski equipment, golf equipment (TaylorMade), and cycling brands—an attempt to become a broader sporting goods conglomerate.
2003 — Three Stripe Trade Mark Ruling
European courts rule that Adidas’s three-stripe trademark cannot be applied to all decorative uses, limiting the company’s ability to block competitors from using similar stripe patterns on clothing.
MODERN ADIDAS (2010 – PRESENT)
2015 — Yeezy Partnership
Adidas partners with Kanye West to launch the Yeezy line of lifestyle sneakers. The collaboration becomes one of the most commercially successful in sneaker history, with Yeezy releases routinely selling out within minutes and reselling for multiples of their retail price.
2016 — Stan Smith Returns
Adidas relaunches the Stan Smith tennis shoe, originally introduced in 1971, as a lifestyle sneaker after deliberately withdrawing it from the market to create scarcity. The relaunch is a massive commercial success, introducing the shoe to a new generation.
2022 — Yeezy Partnership Ends
Adidas terminates its partnership with Ye (formerly Kanye West) following his antisemitic public statements. The split leaves Adidas holding approximately $1.3 billion in unsold Yeezy inventory and costs the company its first annual loss in decades.
2023 — Yeezy Inventory Sales
Adidas begins selling Yeezy inventory in multiple waves, donating a portion of proceeds to anti-hate organizations. The company works to reestablish its sneaker business without its most profitable product line.
Present Day
Adidas remains the world’s second-largest sportswear manufacturer, behind only Nike. The brand sponsors some of the world’s top football clubs including Real Madrid, Manchester United, and Bayern Munich, and continues to compete across running, training, and lifestyle footwear categories.