The beginnings of the Adolf and Rudolf Dassler company
The history of the entire brand dates back to 1924, when two Dassler brothers, Adolf and Rudolf, founded their shoe manufacturing company. The company operated under the name Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik, or 'Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory'. The brothers assisted in the design of spiked sports shoes for many athletic events. The turning point came in 1936, when Dassler persuaded American sprinter Jesse Owens to use the company's handmade spikes at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. This means that just 12 years after its inception, the company was already present at such a major event as the Olympic Games.
The breakdown of the fraternal relationship and the rise of Adidas
In 1949, the relationship between the brothers broke down and Adolf and Rudolf founded separate companies that became business competitors. Adolf created the Adidas brand and Rudolf created Puma.
In 1952, Adidas bought the distinctive three-stripe logo from Finnish shoe brand Karhu Sports for two bottles of whisky and the equivalent of €1,600. The Trefoil logo (now used in the Adidas Originals line) was introduced in 1972 for the 1972 Summer Olympics. The logo survived until 1997, when it was replaced by the world-famous 'three stripes', which are still featured on their products today.
Brand development
By the end of the 1990s, the company had increased its income enormously and had grown. In 2005, Adidas declared its intention to acquire the Reebok brand, which came to fruition in 2006. The acquisition of this company allowed Adidas to compete with the other giant, Nike, worldwide as the second manufacturer of sports shoes.
2005 was also an innovative year, as Adidas launched the first ever footwear to use microprocessors. The Adidas 1 was equipped with a microprocessor capable of performing 5 million calculations per second automatically adjusting the shoe's cushioning level to the environment.
Today, Adidas sells an almost complete range of clothing items, including men's and women's Adidas T-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, trousers, leggings and what has remained from the very beginning of the Dassler brand - footwear. Importantly, the company produces footwear for a variety of sports. Football and tennis can be mentioned here, as their product range includes Adidas tennis shoes for women and men. In addition, the company is the largest manufacturer of sports bras in Europe and the second largest in the world.
Adidas in sport
One of the main sports that Adidas has always focused on has been football and the associated football outfits and equipment. This has made it the world's leading brand supplying outfits for clubs and national teams.
In addition to football, Adidas is also associated with many other sports such as:
• Baseball
• Basketball
• Cricket
• Golf
• Sports gymnastics
• Lacrosse
• Running
• Skateboarding
• Kabaddi
Adidas Tennis
In addition to the sports mentioned above, Adidas has also been involved in the production of tennis equipment for several decades, specifically since the mid-1960s. Many of the world's top tennis players have been associated with the brand. The dominant players at the beginning of the professional era - Stan Smith and Ilie Nastase - were specifically associated with Adidas.
In the 1980s and 1990s, tennis players and tennis players such as Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg and Steffi Graf could be seen on the courts wearing the German brand's clothing. Lendl used Adidas racquets for most of his career, mainly the Adidas GTX-Pro and Adidas GTX Pro-T models.
In the current era we can also name a number of prominent male and female athletes who have a contract with Adidas. These include:
• Dominic Thiem
• Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Fernando Verdasco
• Felix Auger-Aliassime
• Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
• Alexander Zverev
• Maria Sakari
• Garbine Muguruza
• Angelique Kerber
• Jessica Pegula
• Jelena Ostapenko
• Kristina Mladenović
• Jelena Rybakina
