Adidas, one of the most well-known companies worldwide, has two significant milestones to celebrate this year: 75 and 100 years of successful business. It has been 75 years since Adi Dassler, at the age of 49, registered the Adolf Dassler Adidas Sportschuhfabrik in 1949 and set to work with 47 employees in the small town of Herzogenaurach. We will come back to this year later on.
Because it was 100 years ago, in 1924, that Adi Dassler and his brother Rudolf Dassler registered the Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik. Their mission was to provide athletes with the best possible equipment. And they sure did. The two brothers were both smart entrepreneurs and well-skilled craftsmen, eager to equip the best sportswomen and men with exceptional gear. Athletes wearing the shoes made by the two brothers won gold at the Amsterdam Olympic Games in 1928, just four years after starting the business. This was repeated in Los Angeles in 1932 and Berlin in 1936, where American track and field icon Jesse Owens won four gold medals wearing Adidas running shoes with spikes. About ten years after the Berlin Games, the two brothers decided to part ways, with Rudolf founding another quite well-known brand featuring a leaping cat as its logo.
On August 18, 1949, Adi Dassler registered the ‘Adolf Dassler Adidas Sportschuhfabrik’ on his own, starting with 47 employees in the small town of Herzogenaurach. In the same year, he also registered a shoe featuring what would soon become the famous Adidas 3-Stripes. From the very beginning, besides being a skilled shoemaker, Adi Dassler was also a master of marketing. Since the start of his own business, he had been thinking about how to promote his brand so that the customers of his products would understand what shoe brand their favorite sports stars were wearing. He came up with the idea of coloring the straps used for reinforcement on the sides of the shoes in a different color from the shoes themselves. After experimenting with various numbers of straps, he ultimately decided upon three. The “three stripes” became the distinctive mark of Adidas shoes. In March 1949, Dassler registered the three-stripe logo as the company’s trademark.
Footballs, hoodies and tracksuits
As a global superbrand producing iconic equipment across almost all sports segments, footwear remains Adidas’ best-selling category. Football shoes like Copa Mundial and Predator, and sneaker icons like the Superstar, Gazelle and the SL72 are all sold worldwide. Not to forget the Samba shoe, originally a football boot for icy and snowy pitches, which was named Shoe of the Year by Footwear News in 2023.
Since Adi Dassler developed the first-ever modern football shoe with cleats in 1925, football has always been the most important sport for Adidas. Besides shoes and clothing, the company has put a lot of research and development into making the best balls for the biggest tournaments. Adidas balls have been playing at the World Cup since 1970, when Adidas Telstar debuted. As the name indicates, the ball was designed to improve visibility on black-and-white television. When Lionel Messi, wearing a specially made Adidas outfit, won gold in the World Cup 2022 in Qatar, his dream came true literally, as he scored with the latest World Cup ball named Al Hilm, Arabic for “The Dream.”
What began as Adolf Dassler Adidas Sportschuhfabrik in Herzogenaurach in 1949 with 47 employees grew into a global brand. Today, the company is still based in the same Bavarian town. However, Adidas now employs 59,000 people across all five continents, and the brand with the three stripes is recognized worldwide.
Did you know that there is a place where Adidas has preserved pieces of its 75-year-old collection? There sure is! Join Adidas corporate historian guide Sandra Trapp as she showcases some of the most iconic products with three stripes. In the film clip below, Ms. Trapp guides viewers through the Adidas archive, all nestled in the company’s seven-story research and development building called “Laces.” Of course, situated at Adidas’ German headquarters in Herzogenaurach. The film was specially made for Adidas’ 75th anniversary. Watch it here 👇
