How to distinguish the original Adidas sneakers from a fake. The formation of a global brand of sportswear - Adidas Adidas whose company is which country
21.01.2014 / 177
Interesting information about the Adidas brand. Reference data about the trademark Adidas.
Adidas is a world famous German brand of sportswear, footwear and equipment. Today it is the largest concern, which owns 8 enterprises and more than 25 subsidiaries in other countries of the world.
The history of the brand began back in 1920, when the Dassler family decided to start their own small business - sewing shoes. Already in 1925, Adolf (the younger of the two brothers) did for the family business what no one had done before: he was the first in the world to invent and sew football boots with spikes, and already in 1928 at the Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, several athletes performed in Dassler shoes. So football boots and gymnastic slippers became the main products of the Dasslers. By 1938, the company had expanded significantly, opening a second shoe factory, which increased its capacity to produce 1,000 pairs a day.
After the war, the family business had to start virtually from scratch. And in 1948, a quarrel broke out between the brothers, as a result of which each of them started his own business, dividing the factories among themselves and agreeing not to use the family brand and symbols. Adolf called his company Addas, which a few months later turned into Adidas (formed from the name and surname of Adi Dassler), and a little later appeared before the buyers with his signature three stripes - Adolf violated the agreement on not using family symbols and, adding a third to two stripes, patented August 18, 1949 as a symbol "Adidas".
In 1952, the production of other sports goods began under the Adidas brand. At one of the parties, Adolf accidentally met Willy Seltenreich, the owner of a textile factory, and soon ordered him a thousand tracksuits with three stripes along the sleeves. The product began to sell well, and the acquaintance grew into a strong partnership: Seltenreich began to sew only for Adidas. Cleats and sneakers, however, remained the defining direction, and the constant search for improvement led to the fact that the company was the first in the world to start producing shoes with molded polyurethane soles. Now this technology is very popular and is used all over the world.
In 1972, one of the symbols of the company becomes "shamrock", indicating the presence of the company on three continents. Now he is a symbol of the Adidas Originals trade direction.
After the death of Adolf, the company was led first by his wife, then by his son, Horst Dassler, who established strong ties with the International Olympic Committee and the International Football Federation and tried to make the first reforms at the enterprise.
In 1989, the Horst sisters sell 80% of the shares to the French entrepreneur Bernard Tapi, but Adidas' position becomes catastrophically unprofitable, the company's profits continue to fall. In 1993, a controlling stake is bought out by Robert Louis Dreyfus. Dreyfus poached a large number of managers and designers from Nike and Reebok and gradually began to move production outside of Germany: to China, Thailand, Indonesia, which made the products competitive on the world market. The company begins to form a network of its branded salons. In 1997, Adidas becomes the world's second largest manufacturer of sports goods.
Adidas is based in Herzogenaurach. Today the concert includes major companies such as Reebok, Rockport, CCM, and Taylor Made-Adidas Golf. Adidas is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second largest manufacturer in the world.
In the domestic market, you can find products of various well-known world brands. When it comes to choosing sneakers, adidas is the brand of choice for today's youth because it delivers original, high-quality products that last a long time. The choice of such products is very large, but, unfortunately, most of the products are fake. People spend a lot of money on poor quality clothes and shoes. In order not to fall for the bait of unscrupulous sellers, you must know how to distinguish real Adidas from a fake.
Of course, real German products are not sold in the markets and in ordinary stores. You can buy original shoes and clothes only in a fashion boutique or in a store that is an official dealer of the brand. The new collection of Adidas originals cannot be sold in a pavilion or tent near the station, just like the original sneakers of this brand. We offer a few secrets that will help determine if they want to sell you a real Adidas or a miserable copy.
On the official website of the German brand, you can definitely buy original products. If you decide to buy yourself new adidas sneakers, then keep in mind that:
- real shoes can be ordered only in the boutique and the official store of the brand,
- the cost of such a product is very high,
- real sneakers are sewn with high quality without uneven seams and sloppy skin protrusions at the back of the product below the logo,
- there is a special number on each shoe model, which may differ on the left / right sneaker,
- Each pair of shoes comes with an extra pair of laces.
These are not all options, how to distinguish adidas Gazelle from a fake is possible. On real branded shoes there is a tag where the serial number of the model and all information about it is indicated. Pay attention to the packaging and the label, all the data on the tag inside the sneaker must match the data on the box in which the shoes are located. As a rule, the seams on the original are even, straight and strong, there should not be any glue here.
On the official website of the Adidas brand, the entire range of sneakers is presented, when you buy yourself new ones, find the model on the website and compare it with the one you purchased. If the appearance and colors are different, you have been sold a fake.
Everyone can check not only adidas shoes for authenticity, but also clothes. After all, the brand also produces high-quality sports expensive items.
When updating your wardrobe and buying new clothes from adidas, pay attention to:
- fabric quality,
- seam condition,
- line quality,
- clothing color,
- cost of goods.
With original German clothing, everything is the same as with shoes. There are no protruding threads, uneven seams or a skewed logo on real Adidas items. When buying this product, compare the model and color of clothes on the official website of the brand. If there is no gizmo in the color like yours among the original line, this is not a real adidas. Check the original item carefully before you buy it. After all, now you know how to distinguish a real adidas from a fake. Be careful, the Chinese have learned how to make quality copies of products from well-known brands.
In September 2016, Adidas introduced the world to the ball that the teams will play in the qualifying matches of the World Cup. Its design symbolizes the beating of the heart and the surge of emotions that seethe in the stands. And this picture perfectly reflects the character of the Adidas brand itself, the history of which is the constant desire to achieve the impossible.
The official founding date of Adidas is 1948. But it all started much earlier, immediately after the First World War. In the German city of Herzogenauer, the Dassler family begins to sew slippers and orthopedic shoes for disabled athletes from what was at hand - old military uniforms and worn-out car tires.
Soon the small family business became a shoe factory with employees. The younger brother, sports fanatic and taciturn Adolf developed models. And the elder Rudolf, enterprising and sociable, told customers why they should buy their shoes. Things went very well.
Designed by Adolf, a model of spiked sneakers in 1928 appears at the Olympic Games. A year later, the company launches the production of football boots. At the Olympic Games in Berlin, American Jesse Owen, wearing Dassler sneakers, wins 4 gold medals in running and sets 5 world records.
The company becomes a world leader in the production of sports shoes, rapidly increasing momentum. But ahead of her is a serious test - two wars. And if the company managed to survive in the Second World War, then Adolf and Rudolph failed to survive the war of native blood.
In 1948, the Dassler company split into two halves.. Until the end of their lives, the brothers did not forgive their friend personal offenses. Now it is difficult to say how the fate of the sport would have developed if there had been harmony between the brothers. The engine of business has always been competition. The tougher it is, the higher the desire to surpass the opponent and oneself. The Dassler brothers created the world of sportswear the way it is today - perfect. And while few people managed to upset his balance.
The birth of the legendary brand and the first victories
Having received a part of the company, Adolf decided not to give up the glory of Dassler. He added his abbreviated name Adi to the old name. This is how the most famous sports brand Adidas appeared. Later, they tried to interpret the brand name as an abbreviation of the phrase All Day I Dream About Sports (All day I dream about sports).
In 1950, the founder of the company registered a patent for the production of off-season football boots for playing on a frozen, wet and snowy field. At the 1962 Games, athlete Emil Zatopek won the 5 and 10 thousand meters race in Adidas sneakers. He also wins gold in the marathon - no one has yet repeated Zatopek's record. The athlete's wife won the javelin throw.
The Golden Era of Adidas
At the Olympics-60, the vast majority of athletes performed in Adidas sneakers. American Rudolph, who suffered from polio as a child, rose to the highest podium three times. At the 1968 games, 68 athletes who chose the brand won 35 silver, the same number of bronze and 37 gold medals. In the same year, Dassler for the first time in history used a molded polyurethane sole, which is now used everywhere in the production of sports shoes.
In 1972, Adidas becomes the title sponsor of the Munich Olympics. This year, German football players, wearing the famous boots, become European champions for the first time. Two years later they win the World Cup.
1976 marked a record that no sporting goods manufacturer has ever surpassed. At the Olympic Games, athletes wearing Adidas gear won 249 medals, 75 of them gold.
Interesting video: the history of the Adidas brand.
Reasonable fanaticism, as one of the components of success
The 1976 games have an interesting history. Adi, who never traveled to sports outside of Europe, watched the Olympics on the TV screen. While the team of his professionals was in the stands. Dassler's attention was drawn to the incorrect position of the legs of a runner wearing his company's running shoes.
This model with independent stud adjustment was specially developed for the 1976 Olympics. None of those present, even the athlete himself, noticed the flaw. And sports fan Adolf Dassler saw the defect from the screen. He urgently called his specialists and they adjusted Alberto Juantoren's shoes. "Rider", as this runner was called, won the distance of 400 and 800 meters.
It was said that the head of the company, a fan of his business, among a huge number of pairs, could determine the defective one in a second. Punishment for a gaffe for workers sometimes bordered on cruelty.
The meaning of Dassler's life was to create the perfect sports equipment. Until the end of his days, Adi did not stop generating ideas and bringing them to life. As a true athlete, he always played ahead of the curve and thought a few steps ahead.
A new approach to advertising
Adi Dassler clearly followed the principle: There is no better place to advertise sporting goods than stadiums, courts and rings. Not a single sporting event, since the 60s, has been complete without the presence of the famous German brand. Mohamed Ali, Michel Platini, Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane, Steffi Graf are just a very small part of the legendary athletes whose success is largely due to cooperation with Adidas. Adi Dassler was the first in history to attract famous personalities to advertising sports goods.
Adidas soccer ball
1968 entered the history of the brand as the year of the creation of Adidas Telstar - the official ball of the world football championship. It became the roundest of all the balls that existed at that time. The 1970 Mexican Championship was the first to be televised. Telstar's black-and-white design looked so harmonious on the same two-color screen that it was immediately dubbed a TV star.
In 1978, the Adidas Tango ball appeared. It was Adi's latest achievement. That year, the founder of the legendary brand passed away. Dassler's wife took over the management of a huge empire and did it quite successfully. With her, another modification of the ball and the famous Sora Mundial boots appeared, allowing the athlete to achieve maximum control over the ball.
Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup soccer ball
"Adidas can't be killed"
With the death of Frau Katarina, the inextinguishable desire to conquer new heights also left. The Dassler children could not keep their parent's business. Son Horst led the company for only 5 years and even tried to carry out some reforms, but died suddenly. His sisters sold 80% of the shares for a ridiculous price - only 440 million German marks.
The company has fallen on hard times. Profits have plummeted. In the early 1990s, losses amounted to $100 million. IN In 1993, a controlling stake passes to French investors led by Robert Louis Dreyfus. When asked by journalists why he was buying this titanic, the businessman replied: “It is impossible to kill Adidas. I'll try to wake him up."
New rise
First, the Dreyfus team poached the best managers from Nike and Reebok. Then she moved production from Germany to the countries of East Asia. The next step was the abandonment of retail chains and the formation of a mechanism for branded brand stores.
Already in 1996, Adidas again becomes a sponsor of the Olympic Games. This contributed to an unprecedented increase in sales. But the main achievement is the conquest of 12% of the American sporting goods market.
Managers promoted the brand in the hip-hop and rap culture. The company popularized sports new to Europe. Launched a line of women's clothing and footwear. In 2016, the factory in Ansbach produced the first collection on a fully robotic line.
In 1997, Adidas acquired the French manufacturer of winter sports goods Samson and, together with its competitor Nike, became the world leader. In the early 2000s, its former rival Reebok became an independent part of Adidas.
The company produces equipment for 26 of the 28 Olympic sports. The Adidas ball has become a mandatory attribute at all World and European Championships in the new millennium. Adidas is an official partner of FIFA. She also has a contract with the NHL until 2022.
Interesting video: Adidas vs Puma.
Iconic Adidas logos
The official symbol of the brand was registered in August 1949. A third was added to two Dassler stripes. The sign recalls the three principles on which the company's policy is based: shoes must be durable, protect the feet from damage and correspond to a certain sport. Until 1967, stripes were applied only to shoes, and after that they began to be placed on all products of the brand.
In 1972, the Adidas range was replenished with a line of casual wear. From now on, the famous brand has ceased to be the prerogative of only athletes. Then the legendary shamrock appeared - the corporate symbol of Adidas. The three petals symbolized the continents to which the brand's influence has spread, and the famous three sconces symbolize diversity.
In 1997, a logo was developed in which the three stripes were transformed into a top - a symbol that every athlete aspires to. Since 2005, a word logo has been used, containing three stripes and the name of the company: simple and recognizable.
Adidas in Russia
There are 269 Adidas brand stores in Russia. This brand has been especially loved in our country since Soviet times. On the eve of the 1972 Olympic Games, the Adidas management managed to negotiate with General Secretary Brezhnev and equip the Soviet team. It was a serious breakthrough on 1/7 of the globe.
In the early 2000s, Russia became a production site for Adidas jackets and other warm clothing. But due to economic feasibility, the capacities were transferred to East Asian countries.
In September 2008, the company signed a long-term contract with the Russian Football Union. This means that all Russian football teams will be equipped with Adidas.
The quintessence of Adidas throughout the history of the brand has been the desire of man to surpass himself. The company was born out of the passionate attachment of its creator to the sport. But she changed the world of sports and allowed humanity to reach the heights of the impossible.
Anna Wiener, contributor to the Wired publication, visited this factory and told how everything works there. We publish an abridged translation of her story.
Last winter, an unusual Adidas sales stand opened in Berlin, where you could buy a branded merino wool sweater. The trick was that the sweater was made according to the individual measurements of the buyer and right in front of his eyes. First, the client had to go to the showroom, where the system scanned his body, and then discuss with the booth worker the details of the sweater design. Having received all the necessary information, three industrial knitting machines were set to work, and in a few hours the finished product was born. One sweater cost about $250, machines produced ten of them a day.
This was far from the first attempt to test such concepts. At the end of 2015, Adidas opened a new automated Speedfactory in Ansbach, Germany. By shifting production from China to factories near its customers, the company wants to cut delays and logistics costs.
In September 2016, the factory launched the first limited edition sneaker, the Futurecraft M.F.G. (Made for Germany). When 500 pairs of new shoes hit stores in Berlin, shoppers watched the launch on the street and snapped up the sneakers in no time.
Sneakers Futurecraft M.F.G. Photo: Adidas
In October, the company announced a project called AM4 - Adidas Made For. It is a series of sneakers designed with the specifics of the city in which the wearer lives. For example, in London, many people walk to work - special sneakers will be created for them, which will be clearly visible in the dark and in bad weather. New York is divided into squares, so for the inhabitants of this city, shoes will be developed that are ideal for turning at right angles while running. It's hot in Los Angeles. and it is located near the ocean. In Shanghai, most people study indoors. All these features will be taken into account in the production of sneakers, which will take place at two Speedfactory factories.
I decided to check what was happening in this factory of the future, and went to Germany.
Speedfactory in Germany. Photo: Ériver Hijano
First, I looked into the headquarters of Adidas, which is located in the city of Herzogenaurach near Nuremberg. This city is jokingly called the "city of bowed heads" because of the habit of local residents to look at the shoes of the interlocutor in order to determine his social status and belonging to a particular company.
On the Adidas campus, it is easy to identify - all employees wear branded shoes. The headquarters of the company called World of Sports is located on the territory of the former Nazi air base, which in official sources is called the "former US military base" (in 1945 it was captured by American soldiers, in 1992 it was returned to the German government, and five years later the territory bought by Adidas. Some of the original barracks still stand and have been converted into offices.
The Speedfactory is an hour's drive from the headquarters and is located in the middle of a cornfield. Hanging outside the building are Adidas flags and the logo of Oechsler Motion, the company's longtime manufacturing partner who runs the factory.
At the entrance I was given a helmet, and the tour began. The factory itself was white and bright inside, with high ceilings and no windows. There were few workers on it, but there were not so many cars either. On a conveyor belt divided into three parts, robots laser cut fabric, people shaped it and sewed the material in the right way, and then, with the joint efforts of machines and people, part of the sneaker was soldered to the sole. At the far end of the room, an orange robotic arm was making majestic, programmed movements on top of a foam machine.
Speedfactory produces the bare minimum of raw materials for the production of sneakers - machine knitted fabric, strips of semi-rigid thermoplastic polyurethane that are soldered into shoes to give shape, white polyurethane granules for Adidas' signature Boost sole, orange neon lining from Italy and a "floating driveshaft" providing enhanced support for the foot.
Boost outsole. Photo: Alastair Philip Wiper
The shoe making process is amazing. Here, a worker puts a piece of fabric on a conveyor, and the machine seals strips of thermoplastic polyurethane into it according to a precise pattern. Another factory worker transfers the fabric to a belt, where people work at sewing machines to sew miniature bulky shoes out of it. This is what the front of the shoe will look like. Then it is stretched on a special mannequin and placed in a huge machine with a glass door, behind which the front of the sneakers is soldered to the sole. In conventional factories, this process is done by hand using glue. Here, the shoes seem to be baked in a miracle oven.
The Speedfactory and Storefactory are the brainchild of Adidas' new technology department. This department is called the Future team, and it can be considered a kind of Google X for sneakers. The department employs 120 people, which is quite small for a company with 5,000 employees. In the center of the office is a small LBR iiwa robot arm from the German company KUKA - engineers train it to repeat the exact movements of a human hand necessary for the production of shoes and new materials.
There's a MakerLab nearby, filled with rolls of fabric and all sorts of machines for sewing, woodworking, and 3D printing. The atrium houses the meeting space, which is held under real trees, with employees sitting on their laptops next to the amphitheater, where they regularly listen to TED-style lectures at lunchtime. From the outside, it seems as if I got into the office of a startup where athletes work.
It's not the first time Adidas has been active in technology. In 1984, the company introduced a shoe called the Micropacer with an embedded chip that calculated distance traveled, running speed, and calories burned. In the same year, she released Fire - sneakers with interchangeable inserts of different densities. Adidas has shown off a number of high-tech sneakers in recent years, such as the Futurecraft 4D, which features a 3D-printed outsole that “was made with light and air.” The company recently developed several products made from Parley Ocean Plastic, a recycled plastic collected in the Maldives by the Parley charity.
At the end of this year, the Speedfactory will open in the US. Speedfactory's factories will produce half a million pairs of shoes a year, which is small compared to the company's annual production of nearly 300 million units. Speedfactory products are designed for a specific category of customers who are willing to pay $260 for exclusive sneakers.
Some economists believe that factories like the Speedfactory will set a new trend. "Manufacturing can finally get out of the trap it's been in for the past 20 years," said Michael Mandel, chief strategic economist at the nonprofit Progressive Policy Institute. Due to cheap labor, the main production now takes place in Asian countries, but labor automation can solve this problem. Factories will be built closer to potential customers, mass production will become personalized, and there will be more jobs.
But it's still unlikely that Adidas will abandon its global supply chain. The company has been doing very well in recent years, with sales up 21% in the second quarter of 2017. “If you're a company like Nike or Adidas and you're making enough money through contractors and factories around the world, you're not going to want to quickly change things up and invest in automation,” said Sarosh Kuruvilla, a professor of industrial relations at Cornell University. - People love to talk about how technology will change the world and there is a lot of hype around it right now. But the economy must also be taken into account. I think things will happen much more slowly.”
Couruvilla believes that the Speedfactory came about because the company is trying to meet customer expectations. Thanks to the popularity of Amazon Prime, people are used to getting the right product quickly. In other words, Adidas just wants to deliver personalized products to customers as quickly as possible.
Now adidas is one of the leaders in the sports market. Among its products you can choose equipment for any sport. Today, these are stylish and comfortable things created on the basis of the latest technologies in collaboration with designers and world-class stars.
How were things before? How was adidas born? How did it all start? Today we decided to tell you the story of the creation and development of adidas.
On the official website of the adidas Group, the company was founded on August 18, 1949, but in fact the story began much earlier.
In 1924, two brothers, Rudolf (Rudi) and Adolf (Adi) Dassler, lived in the small Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach. Their father worked in a shoe factory and their mother worked as a laundress. Both brothers had just returned from the war, the younger Adi started making shoes in the back room of his mother's house. Then his older brother Rudolf joined him - this was the beginning of the history of the cult brand. Soon the brothers opened a small factory and named it the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory.
The company was engaged in sewing slippers and sports orthopedic shoes for disabled athletes, of which there were quite a lot after the war. Their custom handmade shoes began to gain popularity and 4 years later, in 1928, the shoes of the Dassler brothers could be seen on the feet of athletes in Amsterdam during the 1928 Olympic Games. In the same year, the first studded football boots in history, which the brothers created, received a patent from the German bureau. However, their real success came in 1936 when they traveled to Berlin to present a pair of sneakers to Jesse Owens, who won 4 gold medals that same year. After that, the world sports community turned its attention to the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory.
However, closer to the forties of the 20th century, when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, disagreements arose between the brothers, which reached their peak in the mid-40s of the 20th century. In 1947, Rudy left the company in order to create his own brand - Ruda (Rudolf + Dassler), which was later renamed Puma.
And this event takes us straight to August 1949 - the official founding date of adidas (the younger brother was more fortunate with the combination of the first parts of his name and surname: Adi + Dass).
After the brothers separated, they agreed among themselves not to use the symbols of their factory, but Adi violated the agreement and developed the first official logo of the newborn adidas company - three stripes, simply adding one more to the two stripes of the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory. In the same decades, fierce competition began between the two brothers and, accordingly, between the two sports companies.
In the same year, Adolf creates the first boots with removable rubber spikes.
The younger brother got the final victory over his older brother in 1954 at the World Cup, when Adi agreed with a German coach and adidas sponsored the German football team that won the World Cup. Since that moment, Adi has become one of the world's leading sports brands, and sneakers have become not only an attribute of sportswear, but also everyday wear.
The first attempt at diversification was the production of sports bags. And although sneakers remain the main production, Adolf is looking for a partner who will take over the production of clothing. By chance, at some party, he meets the owner of a textile factory, Willy Seltenreich, and orders him a thousand tracksuits with three stripes along the sleeves. The goods went well, and the partners liked each other so much that soon Seltenreich began to sew only for Adidas.
In 1968, adidas was the first in the world of sports shoes to produce a molded polyurethane sole with a one-year warranty on it. Subsequently, this technology has gained worldwide popularity and is currently used everywhere.
In 1970, the adidas Telstar ball becomes the official ball of the World Cup in Mexico.
In 1972, adidas became the title sponsor of the Munich Olympics, and the German national team became the European Football Champion. The appearance of the famous "shamrock" of the company. Three sheets indicate the presence of the company on three continents of the world.
In 1978, Adolf Dassler dies and the management of the company passes to his widow Katharina.
Thanks to the actions taken by Adolf Dassler in the distant past, adidas sports and casual apparel, shoes and sports accessories are now loved and worn all over the world.
The adidas Group is now one of the world leaders in the sporting goods industry and offers a wide range of products from key brands: adidas, Reebok, TaylorMade, Rockport and Reebok-CCM Hockey. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the company employs more than 46,000 people worldwide and generated total sales of 14.9 billion euros in 2012.