Jesse Owens wore a pair of rubber spiked canvas shoes in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin that helped him make history. The shoes he wore in that race were made by The “Geda” shoe business—short for Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik or the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory. This small company would one day be the second largest sportswear company in the world, known as Adidas (Tii:ADDYY). In1936 Owens broke records and took home four gold medals at those Olympics.

Brothers Adolf (Adi) and Rudolf (Rudi) Dassler started work making shoes in 1924 in a small Bavarian town, Herzogenaurach, Germany, with a long history of shoemaking. In the quaint town, electricity was frequently unreliable and necessity forced them to occasionally use pedal power from a stationary bicycle to run their equipment.

Athletes and coaches were drawn to the Geda spiked shoes (made with metal spikes). Prior to the success of Owens, runner Lina Radke won a gold medal at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics wearing the Geda spikes. By the time World War II began, the company was selling 200,000 pairs of shoes a year.

The partnership was dissolved in 1949 with Adi and Rudi both forming new companies. Adi went on to form the Adi Dassler adidas Sportschuhfabrik, and registered a shoe design that included the now iconic 3-Stripes. Rudi Dassler took his experience and started a separate shoe company, that he initally called Ruda and which was changed the next year to Puma (Tii:PUM.DE).

Adi’s commitment to design and sports technology yielded the development of the Samba, the first-ever leather football cleats with screw-in studs in 1950. At half the weight of other boots and the added feature of removable screw-in spikes that could be switched out depending on weather conditions, the new boot was a game-changer. In the 1954 World Cup final in Bern, Switzerland, the West German team allowed to compete for the first time since WWII, wearing the Adidas leather football cleat, made a dramatic comeback from a two goal deficit to beat Hungary. In the first televised World Cup match, the West German victory put Adidas on the map, the shoe transforming Adidas into a global household name.

In 1967, the brand launched its first piece of apparel, the Franz Beckenbauer track suit. Named after the Adidas-endorsed German soccer superstar Franz Beckenbauer, the tracksuit was not the first tracksuit on the market, but its innovative fabric was comfortable and its dynamic use of the signature adidas three-stripes down the sleeves and down the legs stood out. The suit became an outfit that ordinary people began wearing casually. In the decades since its launch, the suit has become a style staple worn worldwide by many cultural icons like Bob Marley, President Barack Obama, and the rapper, Ye.

Adidas became the official supplier of the FIFA World Cup balls in 1970, putting Adidas again in front of a global audience. People noticed the success of athletes wearing Adidas shoes and clothing — the Argentinean national football team, winners of the 1978 World Cup; adventurer and outdoor icon Reinhold Messner climbed mountains wearing Adidas shoes; and Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci scored a perfect 10 repeatedly wearing an Adidas leotard.

The brand endured some economic and structural struggles after Adi Dassler’s death in 1978 and had a near miss with bankruptcy in 1989 when Adi’s daughters left the company. In 1995 Adidas went public, and it’s global influence began to diversify and expand to the fashion and music industries throughout the 1980s and into the 2000s. A partnership with Stella McCartney’s eco conscious brand was key to expanding into another market, one interested in yoga, health and sustainable living. And collaborations with powerful cultural icons Beyonce and Pharrell Williams and fashion brands Prada and Balenciaga have been part of its marketing.

Adidas changed its slogan in February 2024 from, “Do something impossible” to “You’ve got this.” The company used information from a group of sport neuroscientists, neuro11, to better understand how elite athletes deal with stress and pressure, again focusing on athletes to better inform their decisions, formulate a strong new direction and keep its support and relationships with athletes front and center. In the year before the Olympics, the choice seems fitting.