The letters in Adidas spell "All Day I Dream About Sport". As a brand, it has been one of the most enduring in world sport, linked closely to great moments like the Fosbury Flop and France winning the World Cup in Paris (and thus defeating the enemy, Nike), and to superstars such as David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane. Today, the famous three stripes has even penetrated pop culture and become ghetto chic. Conrad Brunner tells the extraordinary story of a brand, founded in 1949 by an old-style German inventor and businessman. Adi Dassler died in 1978, but even he would have been surprised at the size of the 21st century company now valued at $10 billion, not to mention why a shoe he designed for a Russian shot-putter in 1971 is now quite the thing in downtown Detroit. The story of Adidas is the story of world sport since the Second World War. Whenever there has been a major sporting event, the Adidas brand has been there. In a multi-million dollar industy, no other sports brand has such tradition and prominence.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments; Preface by John Simmons; Introduction; 1 The origins of the three stripes; 2 Adi Dassler wins the World Cup; 3 Armin Hary and Dick Fosbury; 4 The death of Horst Dassler; 5 Decline and fall; 6 Savior number one: Bernard Tapie; 7 Savior number two: Stephen Rubin; 8 Savior number three: Gilberte Beaux; 9 Savior number four: Robert Louis-Dreyfus; 10 Strasser and Moore; 11 Logo wars; 12 Marketing evolution; 13 Leadership; 14 Making hay; 15 Tapping into history; Conclusion; What they did next
Author Biography
Conrad Brunner has been working in the sports media industry for over 15 years, as a reporter, feature writer and TV producer. He has worked on the popular BBC football show Standing Room Only', and completed a series of mini-documentaries on the history of Italian football for Channel Four (Football Italia). Conrad now produces TV features for TWI's weekly soccer programme Futbol Mundial'. He also writes regularly for the Daily Telegraph and France's Agence France Presse. Conrad's favourite adidas shoe is the "Stan Smith" tennis shoe.
