Brand History

Adidas was founded in 1948 by Adolf 'Adi' Dassler, following the split of Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik between him and his older brother Rudolf. Rudolf later established Puma, which was the early rival of Adidas. Registered in 1949, Adidas is currently based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, along with Puma.
 
Beginnings

Adolf 'Adi' Dassler started to produce his own sports shoes in his mother's wash room in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria after his return from World War I. On 1 July 1924, his brother Rudolf 'Rudi' Dassler joined the business, which became Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) and prospered.

The pair started the venture in their mother's laundry, but, at the time, electricity supplies in the town were unreliable, and the brothers sometimes had to use pedal power from a stationary bicycle to run their equipment.

During the 1936 Summer Olympics, Adi Dassler drove from Bavaria on one of the world's first motorways to the Olympic village with a suitcase full of spikes and persuaded U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens to use them, the first sponsership for an African American. Following Owens's haul of four gold medals, his success cemented the good reputation of Dassler shoes among the world's most famous sportsmen. Letters from around the world landed on the brothers' desks, and the trainers of other national teams were all interested in their shoes. Business boomed and the Dasslers were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes each year before World War II.

Company Split

Both brothers joined the Nazi Party, but Rudolf was slightly closer to the party. During the war, a growing rift between the pair reached a breaking point after an Allied bomb attack in 1943 when Adi and his wife climbed into a bomb shelter that Rudolf and his family were already in: "The dirty bastards are back again", Adi said, referring to the Allied war planes, but Rudolf was convinced his brother meant him and his family. After Rudolf was later picked up by American soldiers and accused of being a member of the Waffen SS, he was convinced that his brother had turned him in.

The brothers split up in 1947 with Rudi forming a company called Ruda, which was later changed to Puma. Adi started up Adidas having taken the first three letters from his firtst and last names to form the name.

Adidas Originals

Adidas Originals is a line of casual sports apparel, and is the heritage line of Adidas. The brand uses the famous Trefoil logo, which was originally used on all adidas products until the company decided in 1997 that the trefoil logo would thereafter only be used on heritage products, and was replaced on other products by the Performance logo, which has previously been used on the "Equipment" range of products since 1991. Adidas Originals covers sports fashion styles with strong references to the decades between the 1940s to 1980s. The brand has a distinctively retro old school feel.