"Adidas AG is a multinational company, founded as well as headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, that layouts and also produces footwear, clothing as well as devices. It is the biggest sports apparel maker in Europe, and also the 2nd largest worldwide, after Nike. It is the holding business for the Adidas Team, which contains the Reebok sports apparel company, 8.33% of the German football club Bayern Munich, and Runtastic, an Austrian health and fitness modern technology company. Adidas' earnings for 2018 was listed at EUR21.915 billion.

The business was begun by Adolf Dassler in his mom's house; he was signed up with by his older brother Rudolf in 1924 under the name Dassler Brothers Shoe Manufacturing Facility. Dassler aided in the development of spiked running shoes (spikes) for several athletic events. To boost the high quality of spiked sports footwear, he transitioned from a previous model of heavy metal spikes to making use of canvas and also rubber. Dassler encouraged UNITED STATE sprinter Jesse Owens to use his handmade spikes at the 1936 Summer season Olympics. In 1949, complying with a breakdown in the connection between the brothers, Adolf developed Adidas, as well as Rudolf established Puma, which ended up being Adidas' business competitor.

Adidas' logo is three red stripes, which is utilized on the business's garments and also shoe designs as an advertising and marketing aid. The branding, which Adidas acquired in 1952 from Finnish sporting activities firm Karhu Sports for the matching of 1600 euros as well as 2 containers of scotch, ended up being so effective that Dassler defined Adidas as "" The 3 stripes firm""."