Company Background

adidas' Company Background

The company “Adidas” was formed in the early 1920s by the founder Adolf (“Adi”) Dassler, in Herzogenaurach, Germany. While Dassler was in his mother’s wash room, he decided to produce his own sports shoes. After he made the shoe, he received help from his brother, Rudolf (“Rudi”) Dassler and twelve other people to produce around 50 handmade shoes per day. These sports shoes were made for running and training. Few years later, he and his brother Rudolf were selling special shoes for tennis players and began design specific shoes for different kind of sports. During the 1936 Summer Olympics on Berlin, Dassler equipped gold medal winner Jesse Owens of the U.S. with his shoes.
After that, the family company split in 1948. After the split, Adolf (Adi) Dassler founded Adidas and his brother Rudolf founded Puma.

The three-stripe logo was designed in 1941 by Adi Dassler and he registered it as a trademark for Adidas after the split. Adolph Dassler, decided on a name for his new company. By combining his nickname ‘Adi’ with the first three letters of his surname Dassler, the ‘adidas’ is born. The company formally registered as adidas AG (with lower case lettering) on 18 August 1949.

Adidas began selling their shoes in the United States after 1968 and in few years, the company dominated the American market. The most important marketing breakthrough was the active promotion of global sporting events, especially the Olympics. At the 1972, Olympic game in Munich, every official wore Adidas.

By the time of his death in 1978, at the age of 78, Adi Dassler held more than 700 patents related to sports shoes and other athletic equipment, and had also gaining the honor of becoming the first non-American to be inducted into the American Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame.