Adidas

INTRODUCTION
Adidas was formed by German sports apparel by the founder Adi Dassler during the 1920s. For over 80 years, Adidas has been part of the world of sports on every level, delivering state-of-the-art sports footwear, apparel and accessories. Today, Adidas is a global leader not only in the shoe industry, but also in the sporting goods industry. Shoes from the Adidas are available in virtually every country of the world. . Besides sports footwear, the company also produces other products such as bags, shirts, watches, eyewear and other sports and clothing-related goods. The company is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world, after its American rival Nike. The companys clothing and shoe design typically involve three parallel stripes of the same color and the same motive is incorporated into Adidas official logos.

HISTORY: The history of Adidas is one of consistently

meeting the evolving needs of the athlete. Focusing more on function and less on fashion, Adidas strives to provide athletes with shoes that can make a noticeable difference in their performance. Meeting athlete needs is what makes Adidas the best. The company Adidas was founded in the early 1920s as Gebruder Dassler Schuhfabrik, in Herzogenaurach in Germany. Adolf Dassler designed a pair of sport shoes in 1925 and few years later he and his brother Rudolph were selling special shoes for tennis players and began design specific shoes for different

sports. The family company split in 1948. After the split, Adolf (Adi) Dassler founded Adidas and his brother Rudolph founded Puma. The three-stripe logo was designed in 1941 by Adi Dassler and he registered it as a trademark for Adidas after the split.

The strength of Adidas was its product innovation. Adi Dassler registered more than seven hundred patents. Adidas began selling its shoes in the United States after 1968 and in few years the company dominated the American market. The most important marketing breakthrough was the active promotion of global sporting events, especially the Olympics. The connection of Adidas to the Olympics has a rich heritage. At the 1972 Olympic game in Munich, every official wore Adidas. Adidas has 107 subsidiaries in 20 countries, and exports to 160 countries. Activities of the company and its subsidiaries are directed from Adidas-Salomon AG's headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany.

Products: Adidas - footwear, apparel, and

hardware such as bags and balls. Salomon Winter sports incl. skis, snowboards, snowblades, ski boots and bindings, inline skates, hiking, apparel. Mavic -Cycle components, Bonfire - Snowboard apparel. Arc'Teryx - Outdoor apparel, climbing equipment, Clich - Skateboard equipment, footwear and apparel, Taylor Made-Adidas Golf - Golf equipment, golf apparel, golf shoes and finally, Maxfli - Golf balls, irons and accessories.

COMPET ITORS :

Rudolf Dassler , Adies brother, founded a rival company,

PUMA the chief competitors of Adidas are PUMA and NIKE. In August 2005, the company announced that it had made a deal to acquire rival REEBOK

for$3.8 billion. The acquition would increase its market share in North America and allow it to further compete with Nike. This will propel Adidas to the number two spot in the foot apparel market behind Nike . Adidas trademark saying is impossible is nothing.

ENHANCEMENT
In the 1980s, Adidas sneakers became popular amongst teenagers and young men. The Adidas sneaker was popularized by the RUN DMC song My Adidas and became a huge fashion trend. After a period of serious trouble following the death of Adolf Dasselers son Horst Dasseler in 1987, the company was bought in 1990 by Bernard Tapie for 1.6 billion French Frances ($320million), which Tapie borrowed. Tapie was at the time a famous specialist rescuing bankrupt companies, a business on which he built his fortune.of Tapie decided to move production offshore toAsia.he also hired Madonna for promotion. In 1992, Tapie was unable to pay interest from his loan. He mandated the Credit Lyonnis bank to sell Adidas, and bank subsequently converted the outstanding debt owed to equity of the enterprise , which was unusual for thencurrent French banking practice. Apparently, the State -owed bank had tried to get Tapie out of dire financial straits as a pe rsonal favour to Tapie,reportedly because Tapie was a minister of Urban Affairs in the French government at the time. February 1993, Credit Lyonnais sold Adidas to Robert Louis Dreyfus, a friend of Bernard Tapie, for a much higher amount of money than what Tapie owed 4.485 billion francs rather than 2.85billion. Forgetting why the bank actually bought Adidas, Tapie later sued the bank, because he felt spoiled by the indirect sale. Robert Louis-Dreyfus became the new CEO of the company. He is also the president of the Olymique de Marseille football team, to which Tapie is closely linked. Tapie went bankrupt himself in1994. He was the object of several lawsuits, notably related to match fixing at the football club. He spent 6 months in La Sant prison in Paris in1997.

POST -TAPIE ERA

In 1997, Adidas AG acquired the Salomon Group, and its corporate name was changed toAdidas-Salomon AG.

In August 2005, Adidas declared its intention to buy Anglo-American rival Reebok for US$3.8 billion. This takeover was completed in august 2005 and meant that the company will now have closer business sales as those of Nike in Northern America. The acquisition of Reebok will also allow Adidas to compete with Nike Worldwide. World cup 1954 when West Germany miraculously won the soccer 1954 World Cup, their footwear was supplied by Adidas. These shoes introduced a technological breakthrough: studs with screws.When weather were good and pitch was hard, the shoes were equipped with short studs; when it rained; longer studs were screwed on the bottom of the shoes. As the final game against the highly-favoured team from Hungary was played in heavy rain, this gave the German players a firmer hold on the slippery pitch.

Celebrities: Celebrities are often involved in advertising campaigns such as television or print adverts to advertise specific or general products. Adidas use David Bekham as their brand ambassador and many more celebrities in every region to promote their product. Adidas already has heavy weight sportsmen such as Sachin Tendulkar, Leander Paes & Mahesh Bhupathi endorsing the brand in India. They had the image, apart from endorsing the performance element in the brand. Adidas steps out of crease with a clear sports positioning . ADIDAS IN INDIA
Adidas entered the Indian market in 1996 by setting up a 100% subsidiary of Adidas AG called Adidas India Ltd. and announced its joint venture with Magnum International Trading Company Ltd. on October 1, 1996. The new joint venture Adidas India Ltd. was incorporated with an initial investment of US $ 205 million with Adidas India Ltd. holding 80% of the equity and Magnum holding the balance 20%. This investment was raised to US $ 6.4 million with the equity structure remaining the same. Currently, the total investment stands at US $ 11.4 Million with the equity structure changing to 91.4% by Adidas and 8.6% by magnum. Adidas Range of Products in India: A month after announcing the joint venture, Adidas India Ltd. launched its range of sports footwear, apparel and accessories in New Delhi on November 1, 1996. Subsequently, Adidas products were also launched in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Calcutta. Currently, Adidas products are available in 30 cities in India.

The range of Adidas products available in India include sports footwear featuring some of the most popular innovations and technologies developed by Adidas such as Feet You Wear, Torsion system and adi wear. The sports footwear available in India includes a wide range of core categories such as adventure, basketball cricket, golf, indoor, running, tennis, training, soccer and workout. Adidas has introduced in India, a wide range of sportswear for both men and women. These include apparel for athletics, basketball, cricket, golf, running, soccer, swimming, tennis and training for Men and women.

BRAND VALUE AND STRATEGY OF ADIDAS:

Brand value and strategy of Adidas Ag, a leading producer of sports apparel. In 2006, Adidas owned another big brand Reebok for more than 3.5 million dollars. The brand value of Adidas Ag, the leading leisure wear, sports footwear and equipment producer across the globe is currently almost 2748 million dollars. The company's brand name is Adidas and it is displayed with a trefoil logo. This logo, a very popular one, is a signature of Adidas' brand. It had been launched in 1972. The new Adidas logo, three stripes running across its several products, was introduced in 1991. In 2006, Adidas acquired the Reebok brand for 3.8 million dollars. In 2007, Adidas repositioned its Reebok brand to attract the consumers of athletics apparel. Moreover, the company adopted several plans to expand its brand name .Adidas has given lot of emphasis on advertising. The strong brand management has successfully branded the company over the world. Adidas has introduced several market campaigning ideas, for example, the "Run Easy" campaign for the Reebok brand. After acquisition, the main challenge was to avoid the competition between the past two rival brands, Reebok, the producer of athletics' sneaker, and Adidas. But

Reebok's brand managers have not only successfully done that but also they increased the brand value of both Reebok and Adidas.

A HAWK EYE VIEW

In 1998, Adidas sued the NCAA over their rules limiting the size and number of commercial logos on team uniforms and apparel. Adidas withdrew the suit, and the two groups established guidelines as to what three-stripe designs would be considered uses Of the Adidas AG

ADIDAS
Type Public Founded 1949 Location Herzogenaurach, Germany Key people Adolph Dassler, founder Herbert Hainer, CEO Robin Stalker , CFO Andreas Gellner , Managing Director , India Industry Textile Products Footwear Accessories