formerly called gebr der dassler schuhfabrik 1924 1949 type aktiengesellschaft traded as fwb ads otcqx addyy industry apparel accessories founded july 1924 ; 92 years ago 1924 07 as gebr der dassler schuhfabrik august 18 1949 1949 08 18 as adidas 1 founder adolf dassler headquarters herzogenaurach germany area served worldwide key people igor landau chairman kasper r rsted ceo products footwear sportswear sports equipment toiletries revenue 14.49 billion 2012 2 operating income 1.20 billion 2012 2 net income 0.80 billion 2012 2 total assets 11.59 billion 2012 2 total equity 5.49 billion 2012 2 number of employees 53 731 2014 2 subsidiaries reebok runtastic taylormade adidas ashworth matix website www.adidas group.com adidas ag german pronunciation adi das stylized as did s is a german multinational corporation that designs and manufactures sports shoes clothing and accessories headquartered in herzogenaurach bavaria . it is the largest sportswear manufacturer in europe and the second biggest in the world . 3 it is the holding company for the adidas group which consists of the reebok sportswear company taylormade adidas golf company including ashworth 9.1 % of fc bayern munich and runtastic an austrian fitness technology company . adidas revenue for 2012 was listed at 14.88 billion . 2 adidas was registered on 18 august 1949 by adolf dassler following a family feud at the gebr der dassler schuhfabrik company between him and his older brother rudolf . 1 rudolf had earlier established puma which quickly became the business rival of adidas and is also headquartered in herzogenaurach . the company s clothing and shoe designs typically feature three parallel bars and the same motif is incorporated into adidas s current official logo . 4 5 the brand name is appropriately uncapitalized with a lower case a . 6 contents 1 history 1.1 early days 1.2 world war ii and company split 1.3 early years and rivalry with puma 1.4 tapie affair 2 post tapie era 3 products 3.1 apparel 3.2 running 3.3 association football 3.4 tennis 3.5 golf 3.5.1 company timeline 3.5.2 golf 3.6 cricket 3.7 basketball 3.8 lacrosse 3.9 volleyball 3.10 jiu jitsu 3.11 rugby 3.12 gymnastics 3.13 skateboarding 3.13.1 team 3.13.1.1 professional 3.13.1.2 amateur 3.14 baseball 3.15 field hockey 3.16 kabaddi 3.17 accessories 3.17.1 adilette 3.17.2 santiossage 3.17.3 adissage 4 marketing 4.1 game advertisement 4.2 sponsorship 4.3 collaborations 5 rivalries 6 corporate information 6.1 current executive board 6.2 former management 6.3 financial information 7 criticism 7.1 2011 all blacks replica rugby jersey pricing controversy 7.2 2012 shackle sneakers 7.3 sweatshops and labour rights violations 7.4 environmental record 8 see also 9 notes 10 references 11 external links history edit an adidas shop in bonifacio global city metro manila philippines . an adidas store in vaughan mills early days edit christoph von wilhelm dassler was a worker in a shoe factory while his wife pauline ran a small laundry in the franconian town of herzogenaurach 20 km 12.4 mi from the city of nuremberg . after leaving school their son rudolf rudi dassler joined his father at the shoe factory . when he returned from fighting in world war i rudolf received a management position at a porcelain factory and later in a leather wholesale business in nuremberg . adolf adi dassler started to produce his own sports shoes in his mother s wash kitchen in herzogenaurach after his return from world war i. in july 1924 his brother rudolf returned to herzogenaurach to join his younger brother s business which became gebr der dassler schuhfabrik dassler brothers shoe factory and prospered . the pair started the venture in their mother s laundry 7 5 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 . 8 by 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 sponsorship for an african american . following owens 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 every year before world war ii . 9 world war ii and company split edit during the war a growing rift between the pair reached breaking point after an allied bomb attack in 1943 when adi and his wife ran into a bomb shelter that rudolf and his family were already in the bastards are back again adi said referring to the allied war planes but rudolf was utterly convinced that his brother had been referring to him and his family . 10 after rudolf was later picked up by american soldiers and accused of being a member of the waffen ss which he was not he felt certain that his brother had turned him in . 8 the dolbury factory used for production of anti tank weapons during the war was nearly destroyed by us forces in april 1945 but was spared when adi dassler s wife k the convinced the gis that the company and its employees were only interested in manufacturing sports shoes . american occupying forces subsequently became major buyers of the dassler brothers shoes . 11 the brothers split up in 1947 10 with rudi forming a new firm that he called ruda from rudolf dassler later rebranded puma and adi forming a company formally registered as adidas ag from adi dassler on 18 august 1949 . although it is a popular urban myth that the name is an acronym for all day i dream about sports that phrase is a backronym ; in reality the name is actually a portmanteau formed from adi a nickname for adolf and das from dassler . 1 early years and rivalry with puma edit puma and adidas entered into a fierce and bitter business rivalry after the split . indeed the town of herzogenaurach was divided on the issue leading to the nickname the town of bent necks people looked down to see which shoes strangers wore . 12 even the town s two football clubs were divided asv herzogenaurach club was supported by adidas while 1 fc herzogenaurach endorsed rudolf s footwear . 8 when handymen were called to rudolf s home they would deliberately wear adidas shoes . rudolf would tell them to go to the basement and pick out a pair of free pumas . 8 the two brothers were never reconciled and although both are now buried in the same cemetery they are spaced as far apart as possible . citation needed in 1948 the first football match after world war ii several members of the west german national football team wore puma boots including the scorer of west germany s first post war goal herbert burdenski . four years later at the 1952 summer olympics 1500 metres runner josy barthel of luxembourg won puma s first olympic gold in helsinki finland . citation needed the original trefoil adidas logo until 1998 it is now used on adidas originals . at the 1960 summer olympics puma paid german sprinter armin hary to wear pumas in the 100 meter sprint final . hary had worn adidas before and asked adolf for payment but adidas rejected this request . the german won gold in pumas but then laced up adidas for the medals ceremony to the shock of the two dassler brothers . hary hoped to cash in from both but adi was so enraged he banned the olympic champion . 9 tapie affair edit this section needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . october 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message after a period of trouble following the death of adolf dassler s son horst dassler in 1987 the company was bought in 1989 by french industrialist bernard tapie for 1.6 billion now 243.9 million which tapie borrowed . 13 tapie was at the time a famous specialist of rescuing bankrupt companies an expertise on which he built his fortune . tapie decided to move production offshore to asia . he also hired madonna for promotion . citation needed he sent from christchurch new zealand a shoe sales representative to germany and met adolf dassler s descendants amelia randall dassler and bella beck dassler and was sent back with a few items to promote the company there . in 1992 unable to pay the loan interest tapie mandated the cr dit lyonnais bank to sell adidas and the bank subsequently converted the outstanding debt owed into equity of the enterprise which was unusual as per the prevalent french banking practice . the state owned bank had tried to get tapie out of dire financial straits as a personal favour to tapie it is reported because tapie was minister of urban affairs ministre de la ville in the french government at the time . in february 1993 cr dit lyonnais sold adidas to robert louis dreyfus a friend of bernard tapie for a much higher amount of money than what tapie owed 4.485 billion 683.514 million francs rather than 2.85 billion 434.479 million . they also purposely bankrupted tapie s company that owned adidas because only the company had the right to sue them . robert louis dreyfus became the new ceo of the company . he was also the president of olympique de marseille a team tapie had owned until 1993 . citation needed tapie filed for personal bankruptcy in 1994 . he was the object of several lawsuits notably related to match fixing at the football club . during 1997 he served 6 months of an 18 month prison sentence in la sant prison in paris . post tapie era edit an adidas shoe with the company s distinctive three parallel bars . in 1994 combined with fifa youth group sos children s villages became the main beneficiary . in 1997 adidas ag acquired the salomon group who specialized in ski wear and its official corporate name was changed to adidas salomon ag . with this acquisition adidas also acquired the taylormade golf company and maxfli which allowed them to compete with nike golf . in 1998 adidas sued the ncaa over their rules limiting the size and number of commercial logos on team uniforms and team clothing . adidas withdrew the suit and the two groups established guidelines as to what three stripe designs would be considered uses of the adidas trademark . as ceo of adidas louis dreyfus quadrupled revenue to 5.84 billion euros 7.5 billion from 1993 through 2000 . 14 in 2000 he announced he would resign the following year due to illness . in 2003 adidas filed a lawsuit in a british court challenging fitness world trading s use of a two stripe motif similar to adidas s three stripes . the court ruled that despite the simplicity of the mark fitness world s use was infringing because the public could establish a link between that use and adidas s mark . 15 in september 2004 top english fashion designer stella mccartney launched a joint venture line with adidas establishing a long term partnership with the corporation . this line is a sports performance collection for women called adidas by stella mccartney 16 and it has been critically acclaimed . 17 also on may 3 2005 adidas told the public that they sold their partner company salomon group for 485m to amer sports of finland . in august 2005 adidas declared its intention to buy british rival reebok for 3.8 billion us . this takeover was completed with partnership