Adidas Logo: History Of Creation

And Transformation
The history of Adidas – the biggest sportswear manufacturer – began back in
1948. Before that time, it was a family-owned sports shoe factory called
Dassler, widely known at the time. It was a family business led by the father
and two brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler.

In 1948, a major altercation between the brothers led to the closure of the
family business. As a result, the brothers divided the production in half and
each of them organized their own business. This is how two well-known
ever-competing brands were created: Adidas, headed by Adolph Dassler, and
Puma under the leadership of Rudolph. The brothers agreed among
themselves that they would never use the logo and name of the Dassler
shoes in their work.

How did the brand name appear?

After receiving his part of the family business, Adolf created a new brand
called Adidas, but after a while he changed it and registered the newborn
company under the brand Adidas which has now become legendary. He was
afraid that his brother would outmarket him, and therefore decided not to
ignore the popularity of the Dassler brand, which had already received
recognition in the sportswear market. Therefore, he simply added the part of
its name to the end of his new brand’s name. Thus, the name Adidas is
formed from ‘Adi’ and ‘Dassler’. Later, the name of the brand was jokingly
expanded as “All Day I Dream About Sports”.
 The birth of the Adidas logo

Despite the fact that the brothers concluded an agreement that prohibited
the use of the logo and the name of their family company, Adolf partly
violated it. He took two stripes from the Dassler logo, added another one to
them and patented the resulting image as the official logo of the Adidas
company.

The logo representing three stripes was officially registered in 1949.

This original Adidas logo perfectly fitted the sportswear style and became
easily recognizable on all sports attributes. The three-stripe logo represents
the movement of athletes up the stairs and designed to remind of the
principles of the sports shoes production, formulated by the founder Adi
Dassler: there are special shoes designed for each sport; shoes must be well-
set; sports equipment is designed to protect athletes. At the very beginning,
when the “Adidas” logo just appeared, it was applied only on sports shoes,
but later they decided to put it on all the company's products.

The three-stripe logo is undoubtedly the basis of the Adidas symbol. Adolf
Dassler made a very recognizable label that you could immediately notice on
each athlete wearing the branded sneakers. He compared associations with
the statement “the three-stripe mark”.

Adidas logo started to appear on clothing much later, in 1967. Today, this
sign is recognized all over the world and is associated with Adidas.

The Trefoil

In the late 60s, Adidas brand began to grow and decided to expand its
product range by adding sportswear to it. The new product line led Adi
Dassler and his wife Kat to the idea of creating a new identification element
– the old Adidas logo had to be replaced. Thus, in the summer of 1971, the
trefoil logo was born out of more than a hundred ideas that were created
based on the three stripes image. The trefoil is a geometric reproduction of a
triple intersection, which symbolizes the diversity of the Adidas
manufacturer's range. The new logo was first applied to sportswear in 1972
and later became a corporate symbol.

"3 bars" logo

In 1997, the company decided to introduce new corporate design. They

presented the new, not yet obsolete element, which is known worldwide as
the "3 bars" logo. It was created in 1990 by Peter Moore who was the
company’s creative director at the time. This model symbolizes a mountain
of difficulties that an athlete will have to meet on the way and the goals that
must be achieved in the end.

Adidas "sport and style" logo

Adidas developed its sport and style logo in 2001. The designers drew
inspiration from the idea of a rapidly and unceasingly changing world in
which we all live today. This idea was also used in the whole Adidas Sport
and Style collection. The logo represents the ball covered by three stripes.
The “Adidas Original” logo is presented in the form of a globe crossed by the
famous Adidas stripes which follow the pace and changes in our world.

Three black stripes (2005) makes for a very striking design, and it can be
placed on almost any product.
Today, the company applies all logos on its products to indicate certain
product category.

Sources

https://www.adidas-group.com/en/group/history/

http://1000logos.net/adidas-logo/