Adidas is a clothing company which mainly designs sports wear that was founded in Germany. It is currently in ownership of the Reebok company and Rockport too. Adidas produces footwear, eye-wear, bags, shirts and watches along with other sporting goods. It is the largest sports manufacturer in Europe and the second largest in the world.
It was in 1948 that Adolf Dassler founded the company following the split from another company with his brother Rudolf. The split forced Rudolf to found Puma and in the early stages of their existence they were major rivals. Adolf began to produce his own shoes and design in his mothers kitchen in Herzogenaurach, Germany, 12 miles away from Nuremburg. In 1924, Rudolf decided to join his brother and together they established the company Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) . The brand really took off in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin when they persuaded U.S sprinter Jesse Owens to use their footwear after driving on one of the worlds first motorways with a suitcase full of spikes to put on the shoes. Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals wearing their footwear and so the reputation of their footwear increased dramatically.
The brothers split however during World War 2 when an Allied air attack was happening with Adolf stating ‘The bastards are back’ about the bombs, but Rudolf believed he was referring to him and his family as they just happened to walk into the bomb shelter at that time. This is when the name ‘Adidas’ came into being as a mixture of his forename and surname….ADI and DAS (Adi was his nickname). The rivalry with Puma really took off at this time when Rudolf formed Puma and even the towns local football teams lived the rivalry with one team supporting Adidas, the other supporting Puma.
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