Adidas Watches

German based sports company Adidas was founded by Adolf Dassler in 1920. After returning from World War I, Adolf, also known as Adi, began to make his own sports shoes. He hired two shoemakers and began producing handmade leather training shoes in his mother's washroom with no machinery or electricity. His company was to follow three guiding principles; to produce the best shoe to serve the needs of the sport, to protect the athlete from injury and to make the product durable.

 

His brother Rudolph joined his enterprise in 1924. As they progressed they began to produce different shoes for specific sports. In 1927 the brothers rented their own premises forming the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory (or Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik in German). In 1928 the company designed running spikes with cooperation from Josef Waitzer (German Reichstrainer) and made their debut at Amsterdam's Olympic Games. The company used this opportunity to further develop it's products with help from the athletes. This was followed by the company's first football boot in 1929. Despite the economic depression, the company was performing extremely well, and by 1931 they had bought their factory outright. This was also the year that the company produced it's first tennis shoe.

 

In 1932 the brothers had their first Olympic success with a 100m bronze medal won by German athlete Arthur Jonah in Los Angeles, wearing shoes designed by the company. By 1935 the majority of German athletes were wearing Dassler designed sports shoes. The Dassler‘s Olympic success continued at the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, where athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals and set five new world records wearing Dassler designed shoes in all events. Dassler then began to develop sports shoes with cooperation from the Olympic Committee and by 1937, Dassler’s range of sports shoes comprised thirty different shoes for eleven different sports. The company's enduring success led to the opening of a second factory in the centre of Herzogenaurach in 1938.

 

During World War II, the factory was assigned to produce bazookas. However, the equipment in the factory was unsuitable for this so they were ordered to make shoes for the army. At the end of World War II, the Dassler facilities were seized by the American army and were contracted to produce a thousand pairs of ice hockey boots per month. The Dassler factory was held in trusteeship until 1947 when, as compensation for the ice hockey boots, the factory was sent old army stock, such as tents and old baseball gloves. Adi used these materials to develop more ingenious sports shoes of increasing quality.

 

In 1948, the brothers decided to part company, with Rudolph forming his own sports shoe company, Ruda (now known as Puma). Adi started to use the brand name 'Adidas' for the first time, formed from the names 'Adi' and 'Dassler'. This also marked the beginning of the now famous Adidas 'three stripes' trademark.

 

Adi Dassler began to focus more time on developing football boots and began to produce his first boots with adjustable, moulded, rubber studs. He also designed the first low-cut, soft, lightweight football boot in history with nylon screw in studs. The first 'Samba' all-round football boots were subsequently produced, designed for better traction on ice, snow and frozen ground.

 

At the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Emil Zatopek won three gold medals for the 5,000m, the 10,000m and the marathon all in one week, wearing Adidas designed sports shoes. This achievement has not been repeated since. This is also the year Adidas sports bags were first introduced.

 

The German football team won the World Cup in 1954 for the first time, wearing Adidas boots with new 'screw-in' studs. At half time, Adi Dassler had adapted the players’ boots with a different set of studs to suit the ground conditions. He later named the boot 'World Champion'.

 

Adi continued to develop revolutionary Adidas footwear, introducing new materials like polyamide in the soles of the football boots and kangaroo leather for the uppers. He developed the first 'air sole' in history and the first polyamide half-sole for track shoes. His ingenious use of new materials continued with the development of the first nylon half-sole for sprint shoes in 1957. Notable Adidas achievements were almost continuous and included the 1960 Rome Olympic Games where Adidas was the dominant brand at the games with 75 percent of all track and field athletes relying on Adidas shoes.

 

By the mid sixties, Adidas had begun to develop sports clothing and balls. Adidas had become an ever-present at all major sporting events, becoming a sporting brand phenomenon. Adidas were successfully promoting themselves with major exposure at numerous events including supplying boxing boots to Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in what is known as the 'Fight of the Century'. This popularity led to imitation Adidas products and in 1972 the 'Trefoil' logo was first introduced. The three leaves were used to distinguish between imitations and the real thing.

 

Adi Dassler passed away in 1978 but his legacy continues. Adidas are now Europe's largest sportswear manufacturer. No longer a family owned company, Adidas has continued to produce sports equipment made from innovative new materials such as the Torsion system and the Predator range of football boots. Another Adidas sports product, Adidas watches have been produced since the 1980's. Adidas watches are designed to be robust and functional with a variety of sporting functions. Adidas watches encompass ranges for men, women and children in colourful sporting designs. Adidas sports watches feature the Adidas' three stripe motif or the Adidas three leaves logo and come in both analogue and digital dials. The Adidas 'Candy' watch is an extremely fashionable Adidas watch popular with both men and women. Each Adidas watch comes with a high quality quartz movement and a 2 year Adidas guarantee.