15 Impressive Facts About Adidas

You love the footwear, you own the shorts… here are the most impressive facts about the top sports brand Adidas. 

1. SIBLING RIVALRY

Adidas was born in 1948 from two brothers arguing about how to run their family company, Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik, which was founded in 1924. They disagreed with how to develop the footwear business and split up all the assets, each going on to create a new, separate brand.

You may have heard of it… Adi’s brother Rudolf formed Puma. They stayed in this feud for most of their lives and are now buried in the same cemetery.

2. WE MIGHT’VE BEEN WEARING ADDAS

The company was almost called Addas after founder Adolf “Adi” Dassler. He even registered it in 1949 but another brand was already using it – a German kid’s shoe company. Wouldn’t have the right ring to it, would it? Adidas is also an acronym All Day I Dream About Sport.

3. ESTABLISHED LOGO

Not one, not two but three! Those three stripes we all know and love became a feature of the brand in 1951 and were designed by Finnish sports company Karhu Sports. Adidas bought the design from Karhu Sports and it still features in their logo today. The enhanced Trefoil logo debuted at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

4. ADIDAS IS A PARENT!

The iconic brand has become the parent company of Reebok, Rockport and Taylor Made. So, you may be benefiting from their clothing technology without knowing it.

5. DAVID BECKHAM IS ADIDAS FOR LIFE

Literally. He signed a $160 million lifetime deal in 2003 as a brand ambassador. His last pro game was in 2013, so you’re now more likely to see him in the press hitting the gym in Adidas gear.

6. FIRST PLACE

Not wanting to do anything by halves, did you know the brand is the biggest sportswear manufacturer in the whole of Europe? Evidence of their quality for sure. In the US, they come in at a respectable second behind rival heavyweights Nike.

7. INNOVATIVE DESIGN

As a company, they like to push their creative efforts and innovate. In 2004 Stella McCartney created a women’s line called “Adidas by Stella McCartney” which is now a staple of gym wear and critically acclaimed in the fashion world. In 2012, she designed the GB Team kit for the London Olympics, manufactured by Adidas.

8. THEY HAVE AN ONLINE MUSEUM

All of Adidas’s products throughout the decades can be found archived on https://www.adidas-archive.org/. You can find out about the designers, see old catalogues and kill some serious time online.

9. COMPUTER FOOTWEAR

Long before FitBits and wearable tech were mainstream, the brand released the first trainer to ever utilise computer technology! That’s huge. The Micropacer trainers came out in 1984 and recorded pace and calories burned.

10. 40 MILLION TRAINERS

Their best selling shoe is the Stan Smith, named after the American tennis star of the 60s, 70s and 80s. They’ve sold over 40 million pairs. That’s the equivalent of half of the current population of Germany and everyone currently living in Algeria.

11. BAKED GOODS

Adi Dassler actually trained to become a baker, so could just as easily have been designing pastries and sliced loaves! In the end, history was set when he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and go into the creative world of footwear. Imagine eating an Adidas cake!

12. GETTING THROUGH THE BAD TIMES

They’ve been around nearly 70 years, a lifetime, so it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s they went through a difficult time with trainer designs that didn’t capture the imagination of the public. Because of this, they nearly went bankrupt. What a different story it is today!

13. TYRE TREADS

The grip on Adidas’s Tubular shoes is based on car tyres and their tread. Currently, you can see the technology on the Tubular Snake models. It’s all about grip, stability and of course, style.

14. THE GREATEST – MUHAMMAD ALI

The brand has had huge stars endorse them across a huge range of sports, but perhaps Muhammad Ali is the peak of all celebrity spokespeople. The PR campaign ‘ Impossible is Nothing’ came from a famous Ali quote that goes, “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing”.

15. OUT OF THIS WORLD

Credit: gizmodo.com

The first commercial space flight with Virgin Galactic is headed out of our atmosphere in 2017. The rich and famous passengers including Leo DiCaprio will wear special jumpsuits and boots designed by Adidas’s fashion label Y-3. That’s so impressive, we saved it to the end.

Impossible is nothing! What’s your favourite item from the brand?