What does 'Adidas' mean?

Adolf Dassler was the younger of the two sons of a German cobbler. He is better known as the founder of ‘Adidas’, the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world, after its American rival ‘Nike’. Adidas is head quartered in Germany. The brand name ‘Adidas’ is a modified term made up of the brand owner’s name: ‘Adi’ and ‘Das’. ‘Adi’ was the nickname of Adolf Dassler.

Soon after Adi started his home-based shoe manufacturing business in 1920, his brother Rudolf Dassler also joined him as a partner.

The original name of the company was Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory). But when the elder brother split up with Adi few years later due to political and personal reasons, he renamed the brand 'Adidas'.

Today, Adidas develops revolutionary products for six sports: swimming, track & field, cycling, fencing, weightlifting and wrestling besides manufacturing bags, shirts, watches, eyewear, perfumes and other sports and clothing-related goods. Do you know that other familiar brands ‘Reebok’ and ‘Rockport’ are also the subsidiaries of Adidas?