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Adidas is a global company known for its high-quality sports shoes and sportswear brand. Today, the Adidas logo is a synonym for global quality standards of sports products. The logo is the company’s identity and has evoked trust in its products.
What is Adidas?
So, what does Adidas stand for? Adidas is an iconic sports brand that was launched in Germany in 1924. Today, it is one of the largest European brands of sports shoes and fashion wear.
The company is named after Adolf Dassler, who had registered Adidas AG as the brand. There is no definite Adidas meaning since the company name combines the first letters of the two brothers Adolf Dassler and Rudolf’s names and surnames.
Adidas started its journey in a small German town in the early 1920s. At that time, the two Dassler Brothers first launched a shoe factory. The turning point in the shoe business of the company came in 1936. It was this year that Adolf Dassler made the U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens wear Adidas shoes in the Summer Olympics, which was conducted that year. Owens won four gold medals, bringing Dassler shoes to the limelight.
Now, Adidas supplies sports shoes and sportswear to reputed teams such as the NFL, the NBA, and school-level teams.
The Adidas logo evolution through the years
It would be interesting to note how the Adidas logo evolved from a shield design to a modern minimalistic design over the years.
Adidas logo uses different elements in its unique way to build a lasting impression on its target audience. While the logo looks like a simple black-and-white design, it also has some other elements. Here is the Adidas logo history:
1924 to 1949: Family crest logo
Adidas launched its first logo in 1924. It was a shield designed to convey the power and authority of the company in its track shoe-making business. The name of the company owner Dassler had his name carved at the top of the shield. Another feature of the logo was a bird-like symbol, carrying a sneaker.
The Dassler family crest was the inspiration for the logo. Note that the company was initially known as Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory).
1949 to 1950: A track spikes logo
In 1949, Adidas had a new logo with a lot of detail. The Adidas symbol was aimed at the athletes who were the brand’s target audience. There was a big athlete running shoe as a visual that conveyed the message that the company is a trustworthy maker of track shoes. The name of the brand owner, Adolf Dassler, was still in the logo at the top.
Note also that the letters ‘d’ were shaped like high jump hurdles, which indicated the company’s soccer shoe-making business.
1950 to 1971: Simplified wordmark
The company simplified its logo by eliminating the previous cluttered design elements like crest, icons, and symbols. This time, the brand had its name in white against a black background as its logo. Big shiny small letters gave the logo its identity. The only element that the new logo carried from the past was the black and white color scheme.
This Adidas logo redesign showed the logo in wordmark, capturing its name. The wordmark appears across all the company offerings on different platforms. It conveys high-quality products that help athletes in enhancing their performance.
1971: The trefoil logo
The company redesigned its logo in 1971. This time, the Adidas logos meaning was given a new twist. The logo was a trefoil plant with three intertwined leaves as a prominent element. These leaves represented different products that Adidas was offering to its customers. The leaves also had three horizontal stripes that represented the sports activities. In addition, the brand name appeared at the bottom.
Trefoil plant leaves have been attractive elements of the logo once. Along with the conventional three stripes, these leaves created a unique visual. This element was included to convey the brand’s heritage. The leaves also represented the brand’s all-inclusiveness and global reach.
The trefoil logo mainly appears in Adidas’s lifestyle and casual wear products. A reason for designing this logo was that the company wanted to convey that it had forayed into making multiple products. It was no longer a one-product brand.
1991: The mountain logo
In 1991, the company introduced stripes as part of its logo. These stripes were three thick parallel lines. So, the three thin horizontal lines of the previous logo turned into the thick stripes in the new logo. The stripes represent cleanliness and strength.
The stripes design was linked to mountain. According to Adidas, it represents, ‘’“the challenge to be faced and the goals to be achieved.” This mountain stripes design was for motivating for making products for athletes for participating in competitions.
Its new logo is a stylized mountain having three parallel stripes. These have been a dominating design element for many years and continue to be so. A purpose of the stripes is to convey that the brand helps people tackle obstacles.
2002: Circle logo with stripes
In 2002, Adidas came up with the circle logo to maintain its refined monochromatic style of the classic three strips. But this logo design was restricted to streetwear.
2005: Horizontal stripes logo
The latest logo of the company placed the three horizontal lines on the one side of the wordmark. The lines were on the left side of the brand name. This design looked minimalistic.
A key feature of the above logos is that the company did not abandon them completely. Most of the past Adidas logos are still in use on a host of Adidas clothing and sportswear products.
Why Adidas has multiple logos?
Adidas is one of the few companies with multiple logos printed on their products. Currently, the company has two logos.
The company uses its trefoil logo to represent its heritage. This logo is mostly used on lifestyle products, casual wear, and sportswear, showing the brand’s roots in the sporting world.
The three-stripe logo continues to be a part of the brand’s identity. It is printed on the company’s performance-focused products.
So, it can be said that the Adidas logo has evolved over the years from being a retro brandmark to a modern minimalistic logo design. The company redesigned the logo whenever there was a need to convey the company’s new aspirations.
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Wrapping Up
Adidas is a global athletic footwear and apparel brand. Its logo signifies the quality, precision, and durability of its products. However, the logo design has undergone numerous changes over the years. Starting its journey as a cluttered shield retro design, it is today a minimalistic, unique logo.