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The sportswear brand adidas (officially with a small letter) is a German company from Herzogenaurach. The company is named after the founder, Adolf (Adi) Dassler. The Adidas AG group, listed on the Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse, also includes the brands Reebok and TaylorMade (golf).
The brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler started making shoes in 1920 in Herzogenaurach, near Nuremberg in Bavaria. With the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, both brothers became members of the Nazi Party, with Rudolf having the reputation of being the most fanatical Nazi. Rudolf was later imprisoned, while Adi was left behind to produce boots for the Wehrmacht. The war intensified the differences between the brothers and their wives. Rudolf, after his capture by American troops, was suspected of membership of the SS. The information would have been provided by none other than his brother Adi.
Around 1948 the gap between the brothers increased. Rudolf left the company in 1949 to start Puma on the other side of the city (across the Aurach River), and Adolf Dassler named the company adidas, after his nickname Adi Dassler.
The conflict between the brothers also shared the population of the village. The most famous fight between adidas and Puma in the Netherlands was Johan Cruyff. In the 1970s adidas was the sponsor of the Dutch national team. However, Cruijff had a contract with Puma. Given the rivalry between the two brands, Puma threatened to break the contract with Cruijff if he would play in an adidas outfit. Adidas would withdraw as a sponsor if Cruijff would play with Puma shoes. In the end Cruijff was the only Dutch player in a shirt with two stripes, while all others had a shirt with three stripes.
Among other things, the company supplied shoes to the German football team in 1954. The studs could be exchanged for this.
Adidas suffered heavily in the late 20th century because of the competition from Nike. In 1997 the company took over the French Salomon Group, which was mainly active in winter sports (ski, snowboard), but also in golf (with the TaylorMade brand). The name of the company then changed to adidas-Salomon. However, the winter sport division proved to be loss-making and was sold again in 2005 to the Finnish company Amer Sports. However, the golf brand TaylorMade stayed with adidas.
In 2006, the company succeeded in strengthening its position on the world market through the acquisition of Reebok. In that year, the name of the group was also restored to Adidas AG.
