Adidas History

Adidas was founded in 1924 in Germany by two bothers Adi and Rudolf Dassler. The company was first named Dassler shoes and later became Adidas. By the Dassler shoes being seen in the Olympics this really helped the company get it’s name known. However, in 1948 Rudolf Dassler leaves to start his own company which is now known as Puma. Once Rudolf left his brother came up with the famous three stripes logo and changed the name to Adidas.

The 3 stripes were created to keep the foot stable, but ended up being the logo. Throughout the years Adidas was seen in the Olympics, and it was the leading brand making their shoes highly sought after by Olympic athletes. In 1978, Adi Dassler passed at age 78 and his wife Kathe ran the company. Six years later Kathe passed and the company was left for their son Horst Dassler to run, and three years later Horst passed at age 51. After Horst’s death Adidas ran into some major financial problems, and later Bernard Tapie comes to make an attempt to save the company.

Adidas has worked with many famous people and has a signature shoe line for Stan Smith, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady aka TMAC, Missy Elliot, and many others.

The Story of a Logo

1949 – Adi Dassler used the 3 striped Adidas logo on Adidas sports shoes.

1971 – This year marked the birth of Adidas Trefoil Logo. The Trefoil Adidas logo showed the diversity in Adidas brand. It was first used in 1972, and later became a corporate symbol.

1990 – The three striped Adidas Logo was re-introduced after being reengineered by Peter Moore, who was the creative director of Adidas at that time.

1998 – Adidas merged with Salomon and introduced a new corporate logo that represented brand values of both the groups. It maintained the blue color of Adidas and inherited Red color from Salomon. The logo incorporated 3 shapes to look like a diamond. The two arcs that extended upwards represented the arms of the winner, raised after victory.

2005 – The new Adidas “Word Mark” logo has been introduced. The new Logo is clear, simple, and confident and shows leadership.