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Adidas
Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group,
which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, golf company (including Ashworth), and
Rockport. Besides sports footwear, the company also produces other products such as bags, shirts,
watches, eyewear and other sports and clothing-related goods. The company is the largest
sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world,
after its American rival Nike.[3]

Adidas was founded in 1948 by Adolf "Adi" Dassler, following the split of Gebrüder Dassler
Schuhfabrik between him and his older brother, Rudolf. Rudolf later established Puma, which was
the early rival of Adidas. Registered in 1949, Adidas is currently based in Herzogenaurach,
Germany, along with Puma.

The company's clothing and shoe designs typically feature three parallel bars, and the same motif is
incorporated into Adidas's current official logo. The "Three Stripes" were bought from the Finnish
sport company Karhu Sports in 1951.[4][5] The company revenue for 2009 was listed at €10.38
billion and the 2008 figure at €10.80 billion.

History

Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik

Adolf "Adi" Dassler started to produce his own sports shoes in his mother's wash kitchen in
Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, after his return from World War I. In 1924, his brother Rudolf "Rudi"
Dassler joined the business which became Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe
Factory) and prospered. The pair started the venture in their mother's laundry,[6]:5 but at the time,
electricity supplies in the town were unreliable, and the brothers sometimes had to use pedal power
from a stationary bicycle to run their equipment.[7]

By the 1936 Summer Olympics, Adi Dassler drove from Bavaria on one of the world's first
motorways to the Olympic village with a suitcase full of spikes and persuaded U.S. sprinter Jesse
Owens to use them, the first sponsorship for an African American. Following Owens's haul of four
gold medals, his success cemented the good reputation of Dassler shoes among the world's most
famous sportsmen. Letters from around the world landed on the brothers' desks, and the trainers of
other national teams were all interested in their shoes. Business boomed and the Dasslers were
selling 200,000 pairs of shoes each year before World War II.[8]

Late in World War II, the shoe factory shifted to production of the Panzerschreck anti-tank
weapon.[9]

Company split
Both brothers joined the Nazi Party, but Rudolf was slightly closer to the party. During the war, a
growing rift between the pair reached a breaking point after an Allied bomb attack in 1943 when
Adi and his wife climbed into a bomb shelter that Rudolf and his family were already in: "The dirty
bastards are back again," Adi said, apparently referring to the Allied war planes, but Rudolf was
convinced his brother meant him and his family.[10] After Rudolf was later picked up by American
soldiers and accused of being a member of the Waffen SS, he was convinced that his brother had
turned him in.[7]

The brothers split up in 1947,[11] with

 Rudi forming a new firm that he called Ruda – from Rudolf Dassler, later rebranded Puma,
 and Adi forming a company formally registered as adidas AG (with lower case lettering) on
18 August 1949. The acronym All Day I Dream About Sport, although sometimes
considered the origin of the adidas name, was applied retroactively, which makes it a
backronym. The name is actually a portmanteau formed from "Adi" (a nickname for Adolf)
and "Das" (from "Dassler").[1]

Bernard Tapie, a former French businessman who once owned Adidas but has since relinquished
his control over the company due to debt

After a period of trouble following the death of Adolf Dassler's son Horst Dassler in 1987, the
company was bought in 1989 by French industrialist Bernard Tapie, for ₣1.6 billion (now €243.918
million), which Tapie borrowed. Tapie was at the time a famous specialist of rescuing bankrupt
companies, an expertise on which he built his fortune.

Tapie decided to move production offshore to Asia. He also hired Madonna for promotion. He sent,
from Christchurch, New Zealand, a shoe sales representative to Germany and met Adolf Dassler's
descendants (Amelia Randall Dassler and Bella Beck Dassler) and was sent back with a few items
to promote the company there.

In 1992, unable to pay the loan interest, Tapie mandated the Crédit Lyonnais bank to sell Adidas,
and the bank subsequently converted the outstanding debt owed into equity of the enterprise, which
was unusual as per the prevalent French banking practice. Apparently, the state-owned bank had
tried to get Tapie out of dire financial straits as a personal favour to Tapie, reportedly because Tapie
was Minister of Urban Affairs (ministre de la Ville) in the French government at the time.

In February 1993, Crédit Lyonnais sold Adidas to Robert Louis-Dreyfus, a friend of Bernard Tapie
for a much higher amount of money than what Tapie owed, 4.485 billion (€683.514 million) francs
rather than 2.85 billion (€434.479 million). Tapie later sued the bank, because he felt "spoiled" by
the indirect sale.[citation needed]

Robert Louis-Dreyfus became the new CEO of the company. He was also the president of
Olympique de Marseille, a team Tapie had owned until 1993.[citation needed]

Tapie filed for personal bankruptcy in 1994. He was the object of several lawsuits, notably related
to match fixing at the football club. During 1997, he served 6 months of an 18-month prison
sentence in La Santé prison in Paris. In 2005, French courts awarded Tapie a €135 million
compensation (about 886 million francs).[citation needed]

In 1994, combined with FIFA Youth Group, SOS Children's Villages became the main beneficiary.

In 1997, Adidas AG acquired the Salomon Group who specialized in ski wear, and its official
corporate name was changed to Adidas-Salomon AG because with this acquisition Adidas also
acquired the Taylormade Golf company and Maxfli which allowed them to compete with Nike
Golf.

In 1998, Adidas sued the NCAA over their rules limiting the size and number of commercial logos
on team uniforms and apparel. Adidas withdrew the suit, and the two groups established guidelines
as to what three-stripe designs would be considered uses of the Adidas trademark.

In 2003, Adidas filed a lawsuit in a British court challenging Fitness World Trading's use of a two-
stripe motif similar to Adidas's three stripes. The court ruled that despite the simplicity of the mark,
Fitness World 's use was infringing because the public could establish a link between that use and
Adidas's mark.[12]

In September 2004, top English fashion designer Stella McCartney launched a joint-venture line
with Adidas, establishing a long-term partnership with the corporation. This line is a sports
performance collection for women called "Adidas by Stella McCartney",[13] and it has been
critically acclaimed.[14]

Also in 2005, on 3 May, Adidas told the public that they sold their partner company Salomon
Group for €485m to Amer Sports of Finland.

In August 2005, Adidas declared its intention to buy British rival Reebok for $3.8 billion (US). This
takeover was completed with partnership in January 2006[1] and meant that the company will have
business sales closer to those of Nike in North America. The acquisition of Reebok will also allow
Adidas to compete with Nike worldwide as the number two athletic shoemaker in the world.[15]

Adidas has global corporate headquarters in Germany, and many other business locations around
the world such as Portland OR, Hong Kong, Toronto, Taiwan, England, Japan, Australia and Spain.
Mainly sold in the U.S., Adidas makes lots of assets from these countries and is expanding to more
oversea countries.

In 2005, Adidas introduced the Adidas 1, the first ever production shoe to utilize a microprocessor.
Dubbed by the company "The World's First Intelligent Shoe", it features a microprocessor capable
of performing 5 million calculations per second that automatically adjusts the shoe's level of
cushioning to suit its environment. The shoe requires a small, user-replaceable battery that lasts for
approximately 100 hours of running. On 25 November 2005, Adidas released a new version of the
Adidas 1 with an increased range of cushioning, allowing the shoe to become softer or firmer, and a
new motor with 153 percent more torque.[citation needed]

On 11 April 2006, Adidas announced an 11-year deal to become the official NBA apparel provider.
They will make NBA, NBDL, and WNBA jerseys and products as well as team-coloured versions
of the "Superstar" basketball shoe. This deal (worth over $400 million) takes the place of the
previous 10-year Reebok deal that was put in place in 2001

Marketing

Adidas, like other sports brands, is believed to engender high consumer brand loyalty. Brand loyalty
towards Adidas, Nike, Inc., Puma AG and several other sportswear brands was examined in a recent
study.[28] The study found consumers did not exhibit unduly high loyalty towards such brands.

During the mid to late 1990s, Adidas divided the brand into three main groups with each a separate
focus: Adidas Performance was designed to maintain their devotion to the athlete; Adidas Originals
was designed to focus on fashion and life-style; and Style Essentials, with the main group within
this one being Y-3.

"Impossible is Nothing" is the current mainstream marketing slogan for Adidas. This campaign was
developed by 180/TBWA based in Amsterdam but also with significant work being done by
TBWA/Chiat/Day in San Francisco – particularly for its basketball campaign "Believe In
Five".TBWA\Chiat\Day commissioned Zane Peach[29] to produce images for 2007 international ad
campaign.

Game advertisement

The brand is featured in several games. Amiga|Commodore Amiga: Daley Thompson's Olympic
Challenge Sony Playstation: Adidas power soccer Commodore 64, ZX spectrum, Amstrad CPC:
Adidas Championship Football

Sponsorship

Adidas is a major domestic (within Germany) and international sports and events sponsor. During
the last number of years, the Group has increased its marketing and sponsorship budget.[30] Adidas
is a key sponsor and supplier to the National Basketball Association (NBA). The company recently
unveiled a new NBA game jersey to be worn by all NBA players in games beginning in the 2010–
2011 season.

Adidas are the main sponsor and kit supplier of the highly successful New Zealand national rugby
team, the All Blacks. Adidas also are the kit supplier to the Los Pumas, the Eagles, the Irish
professional rugby union team, Munster Rugby and the French professional rugby union club, Stade
Français.

Adidas also sponsors and produces apparel for the rugby league club Gold Coast Titans in the
Australian National Rugby League (NRL) competition.

In cricket, the company are the main and kit sponsors sponsors of the successful Australian Cricket
Team and the England Cricket Team. They are also the main sponsors of the Indian cricketers
Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag and English cricketers Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell. They
are sponsors of the Indian Premier League teams Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians.

Adidas is the longstanding kit provider to the Germany national football team, a sponsorship that
began in 1954 and is contracted to continue until at least 2018. Adidas also sponsors the Argentine,
Japanese, Mexican, Scottish, Spanish and Colombian national football teams, among others.[31]
Adidas are very active at sponsoring top football clubs such as R.S.C. Anderlecht, Wisła Kraków,
Rapid Vienna, Real Madrid, Aberdeen F.C., AC Milan, Dynamo Kyiv, Metalist, Partizan Belgrade,
Chelsea, Liverpool , Palmeiras , Fluminense , Bayern Munich, Rosenborg BK, Stoke City F.C.,
Lyon, Marseille, AFC Ajax, Schalke 04, Galatasaray, Benfica, River Plate, Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe,
UANL Tigres, Panathinaikos, South Melbourne FC, IFK Göteborg, Zamalek SC, Al-Ahly, Al-Hilal,
Ahli Jeddah, Caracas, Universidad de Chile, Los Millonarios, Beitar Jerusalem F.C.Albirex Niigata
and Atlético Nacional.

Adidas is the apparel partner of the Collingwood Football Club and the Essendon Football Club in
the Australian Football League.

Adidas and Major League Soccer (MLS) announced a 8-year sponsorship agreement in August
2010 that will continue to make Adidas the official athletic sponsor and licensed product supplier
for the league, and to work together to expand the developmental league for MLS through 2018.[32]

Adidas also sponsors events such as the London Marathon and Adidas Sundown Marathon in
Singapore.[33]

In the 1980s, Adidas sponsored rap group Run-D.M.C., a breakthrough idea.

For the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Adidas spent €70 million sponsoring the event,
amid criticisms.[34]

Adidas has also been marketing in NASCAR, sponsoring big name drivers such as Dale Earnhardt,
Jr. and Tony Stewart.