What is Adidas’ net worth and brand value in 2020?
Introduction
Adidɑs is a multinational company, which was founded in Germany in 1924. The sports brand specializes in the production and design of sports cleats, jerseys, clothes, and other accessories. Adidas ranks as one of the world’s largest manufacturers of sports wears.
Aside from American rival Nike, no other company has its tentacles extended as deep as Adidas in the world of Sportswear production. Despite being widely recognized as Europe’s top sportswear manufacturer, Adidas has its tentacles extended to ownership of a football club and a tech fitness company.
The German-based corporation serves as the Parent Company of the Adidas Group, through which it exercises its duties as an 8.33% shareholder in Bundesliga giant, Bayern München, and owner of an Austrian fitness company, Runtastic.
The success Adidas has experienced through the last 96 years and 70 years of existence as Adidas has been dramatic, considering the split that ended up resulting in the Adidas and Puma brand’s establishment. The perseverance and persistence of the Adidas brands, brings to mind, the adaptive nature of Europeans.
With an emphasis on Adidas’ brand value, we’ll review its establishment, growth, achievements, and earnings.
Adidas Brand Establishment
Following World War I, Adolf “Adi” Dassler, a young German man, began making sports shoes in his mother’s laundry room. The birthplace of the Adidas was in a laundry room in Herzogenaurach, where the company’s current headquarters is located. Adolf’s elder brother, Rudolf, became part of the business, and the company Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory was founded.
The two brothers were determined in the production of the sports shoes, that they resorted to a bicycle’s pedal power to provide electricity, to produce shoes. Aside from being resolved, they were also innovative. They made spiked shoes, but rather than the dense metal spikes widely used then, the brothers introduced canvas and rubber.
The Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory enjoyed significant success after the 1936 summer Olympics. At the 1936 edition of the Olympics, sprinter Jesse Owens, who was successfully persuaded by the brothers, to make use of their hand-made spike shoes, claimed 4 Gold medals. That had a significant effect on the Adi Dassler shoe brands, as words spread quickly, which led the company to produce 200,000 shoes annually before World War II.
The outbreak of World War II had little effect on business. The brothers who were members of the Nazi Party was the last shoe manufacturing company operating in Germany at the height of the war. They made shoes for the German unified Armed forces, known as Wehrmacht. At one of the factories owned by the company, they manufactured anti-tank weapons. That factory nearly got destroyed by American troops, but thanks to Adolf Dassler’s wife, who convinced the soldiers that they were only interested in the manufacture of sports shoes. The Americans not just spared the factory but became regular buyers of the Dassler shoes.
In 1947, the brothers’ relationship soured, which led Rudolf to establish Ruda, now known as Puma. Adolf went on to rename his company to Adidas AG. He formed the name, from his nickname, Adi, and the first three letter of his last name, Dassler.
The feud between the brothers affected the Herzogenaurach community. The town got the moniker, “the town of bent necks,” due to the feud, as people looked down to see what brand of shoe others wore. The dispute affected the town’s two domestic football teams, as 1 FC Herzogenaurach supported Ruda, while ASV Herzogenaurach endorsed Adidas AG.
In 1952, Adidas AG company began using its 3-Stripe logo after buying it for €1600 and two whiskeys from Finnish sports brand, Karhu Sports.
