Adidas

The company was originally called "Gebruder Dassler Schuhfabrik" was founded by Adolf "Adi" Dassler, in the early 1920s with the help of his brother Rudolf Dassler. They make shoes and sandals marked, and spiked shoes for athletes. Adi is the artist Rudi closed and public relations. Both managed to place their products in the German athletics. But it was a masterstroke signing of Jesse Owens, the Olympic athlete who dazzled in Berlin in 1936.During World War changed the factory, like many others, suppliers Wehrmacht. In addition to producing military bototos famous Panzerschreck, grenade launchers Germany. Rudi deployed, while Adi stayed in Germany. And then the problems started. During the U.S. occupation became the business to grow, thanks to the devotion to the sport. But Rudi called upon to explain their relationship to the Nazi party and the SS Waffen, and became convinced that his brother had given him away.The Jabulani, the official ball of the 2010 World Cup.Rudi Dassler founded his own factory, PUMA AG in 1948. As a result, Adi Dassler took over the company and decided to change the company name as "adidas", which was officially registered on August 18 of 1949, with the name of Adidas AG. The company name comes from the name of its founder, "Adi" is short for Adolf, and "das" the first syllable of the name. 'Since then, Adolf Dassler has a priority that the company took the lead through a close relationship with the sport in a variety of disciplines in order to develop better products, at the same time is a pioneer in the use of maximum sports stars to advertise their products. Together with his son Horst, managed to create an empire that reached its peak until the late 80's.In 1987, Horst Dassler, who took the reins of the company after his father's death, died at age 51. With this event, the company experienced a most critical period, mainly characterized by intense competition, especially from the U.S. company Nike and administrative Bernard Tapie, marked by financial scandals.