adidas – a name that stands for competence in all sectors of sport around the globe.

The vision of company founder Adolf (“Adi”) Dassler has long become reality and his corporate philosophy the guiding principle for successor generations.The idea was as simple as it was brilliant.

Adi Dassler’s aim was to provide every athlete with the best possible equipment. It all began in 1920, when Adi Dassler made his first shoes using the few materials available after the First World War.Today, the adidas product range extends from footwear and apparel to watches for all kinds of different sports.

The key priorities are: running, football, basketball and training.In 1949 Adi Dassler first registered adidas in the commercial register (Handelsregister) in Fürth (near Herzogenaurach). The official name of the company back then was “Adolf Dassler adidas Sportschuhfabrik”. After a period spanning almost 70 years, the Dassler Family withdrew from the company in 1989, and the enterprise was transformed into a corporation (“Aktiengesellschaft”).

French-born Robert Louis-Dreyfus was Chairman of the Executive Board from April 1993 to March 2001. It was he who initiated adidas’ flotation on the stock market in November 1995. Since 2001, Herbert Hainer has been leading the Group. Adi Dassler - the man who gave adidas its name
Adolf Dassler was inspired by a single idea when he made his first shoes in 1920, at the age of just 20.

His vision was to provide every athlete with the best footwear for his respective discipline. It was this principle that guided him right up until his death in 1978.His first shoe, made from the few materials available in the difficult post-war period, was produced from canvas. A passionate athlete himself, from the very beginning Adi Dassler was in close contact with sports participants and was always present in person at important sports events.

Adi Dassler focused his work on the classic disciplines of track and field. In the mid 1920s he was already experimenting with spikes. Athletes wore special shoes from his workshop for the first time at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

In the mid 1930s Adi Dassler was already making 30 different shoes for eleven sports, and he had a workforce of almost 100 employees. In less than two decades adidas advanced to become the world’s leading sports shoe manufacturer.

After the turmoil of the Second World War, Adi Dassler made a fresh start. In 1947, with 47 workers, he began putting into practice the knowledge gained from the prewar period and also new ideas. Adi Dassler made the first post-war sports shoes using canvas and rubber from American fuel tanks. In 1949 he registered the company named “Adolf Dassler adidas Sportschuhfabrik” in the commercial register in Fürth.

The breakthrough came for Adi Dassler when Germany won the Soccer World Cup in 1954. In the legendary Final against Hungary, the German team wore boots with screw-in studs – by adidas.Parallel to the rapid developments in sport, Adi Dassler strove to specialize and optimize his products. Adi Dassler was the first entrepreneur to use sports promotion in order to make the public aware of his innovations.

He started using well-known athletes as advertising for his products.Many famous athletes such as Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, Max Schmeling, Sepp Herberger and Franz Beckenbauer counted themselves among the friends of the Dassler Family.Aggressive publicity became one of the cornerstones of his corporate policy.

From now on, Adi Dassler came up with a product innovation for every major event, documenting the superiority of adidas footwear. In constant contact with active athletes in a wide variety of disciplines, he developed the optimal shoe for almost every sport. Together with his son Horst, Adi Dassler created an international company that was, and still is, present at all the world’s major sporting events.