One of adidas’ greatest successes is to have made different generations since the 60’s relate sport with the three stripes. A brand image that meant sport.
The Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik, the original company of the Dassler brothers, already used stripes on the sides of its sneakers, but they varied in shape and number. adidas and Puma were born from the same family, but have followed very different paths. While Puma has constantly redesigned its image, adidas has remained faithful to a concept, the 3, which appears in the few logos used throughout its history.
The brand with the two stripes
However, it was not always 3. The first name of the company created by Adi Dassler was to be addas and the first isologue used the extensions of each “D”.
The brand with the three stripes
The name could not be registered because of its similarity to an existing shoe company and Adi Dassler opted for adidas, with an image similar to the original, with the obvious change of name. This isologo already featured sneakers with the three stripes. The reason was fully functional, Adi found that the three stripes provided just the right support. Legend has it that the Finnish brand Karhu was already using the three stripes, so Adi had to come to an agreement with them to use them on his sneakers. During the 1950s and 1960s, it was cleaned up to keep only the brand name, which were revised in 1967.
The adidas trefoil
In 1972, in the midst of international expansion, adidas was starting to grow in a completely new world: textiles. It needed a logo that would be visible on its well-known jackets and pants and that could be related to the sneakers. The job was entrusted to a group of designers led by Hans Fick, and the end result is what we now call the adidas “trefoil”. Inspired by three leaves, the three stripes kept appearing (in negative, horizontally).
adidas Equipment
Peter Moore and Rob Strasser joined adidas in the late 1980s, having previously worked with the company on other brands. They understood that adidas’s main value lay in its direct relationship with sport, free of artifice. To highlight it, they created a collection of essentials called Equipment, which features a new logo based on the original three stripes.
The line represented a true renaissance for adidas, which used the new logo, with some modifications, for its performance pieces.
Adidas now uses different logos for each of its lines, but they all have one thing in common: the three stripes. At FOOTDISTRICT you can find a selection of adidas footwear, apparel and accessories.