Adidas is one of the most seen and sought-after brands on the high street, and it has so for countless years. Starting out as a sportswear brand, it has managed to dominate the world of fashion attracting people from all subcultures, while keeping its classic three stripe staple. No matter what clothes you’re into Adidas seems to have something for everyone, but how did they manage to satisfy such a large market and influence multiple generations of clothing while keeping their statement looks?
Adidas was first brought about in the 1920s by Adi Dasser, who reached acclaimed fame for his invention of the sew in football boots. This grouped with the later famed designs of the game-changing ‘samba’ (1949) leading to Adidas being regarded as one of the sporting goods classics.
As the popularity of the brand grew, competition between other brands followed. This led to a turnaround in fashion direction-surfacing apparel for every day usage for all audiences. The simplistic three stripe on the contemporary trainer made the designs wearable for sports as well as every day wear-such as the iconic Adidas Original and the Gazelles.
As the 2000’s-2010’s approached, and fashion shifted to more high end, out-their items, Adidas as a brand had nowhere in the market to fit, other than sportswear. Adidas was starting to look like a thing of the past producing nostalgia, not new products. This is where the company geared away from sportswear and headed for contemporary clothing and footwear, which started an Adidas craze around the world.
The brand increased their success with drool worthy collaborations with other designers/public figures, who influenced pop-culture. Celebrities such as Kanye west, Jay Z, and Pharrell Williams started forming partnerships with the brand, which lead to audiences joining in on the specific trend. Adidas joined forces with other brands to widen their markets and altered their traditional fits in line with the collaborator to suit more sub-cultures of fashion looks:
In 2002 Y-3 (Yohiji Yamamoto) started their partnership with Adidas, which remains today as one of the most iconic collaborations. The mix of Adidas’ performance driven clothing and Y-3s techniques created dramatic pieces which stood out from traditional sportswear.
The September drop of Adidas x Palace 2014 was great publicity for Adidas, as Palaces skating looks also shifted into the mainstream. The laid-back striking pieces reflected today’s street-wear trends and fashion which Adidas now interprets as their own.
Street-wear has come its own in recent years, inspired by skate culture with elements of hip hop and couture fashion. Multiple brand has tried to comply to the growing trend, yet Adidas have successfully been able to alter their clothing to fit this style with drops such as Adidas x Skate.
In recent years, a lot of fashion influences of the 90s have made a comeback. Much like that of Puma and Reebok, Adidas has reinvented its old looks and made variations on the old loved classics (such as the Stan Smiths and Superstars) to suit this demand for ‘vintage’ and ‘retro’ style.
Adidas is now one of the most recognised brands in the world. They manage to create different products for different styles ranging from sportswear, vintage, street-wear, and couture. Each item has a story for the person who has it, due to the history of the brand. It’s a house hold name and will be forever increasing its popularity by constantly reinventing it products to create new trends. Still they never stray from the goal to be high quality and consumer driven, which is why the love affair with the three stripes has lasted so long.
All photos courtesy of Adidas.com
