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After graduating from school, Dassler followed in his father's footsteps to complete an apprenticeship as a Schumacher. In 1920 he took over his father's shoe making business, whose product range he soon expanded to include sports shoes. In 1924 his brother Rudolf Dassler also joined the company. Due to the innovative management of the Dassler brothers, the former shoemaker's workshop quickly developed into a flourishing business. In 1925, Adolf Dassler developed the first football shoe with nail studs, which was patented in the same year. The resourceful entrepreneur also manufactured tennis shoes from 1931. The fact that a German sprinter won the bronze medal at the 1932 Olympic Games wearing Dassler sports shoes had a positive effect on the reputation of his products.
At the subsequent Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936, successful runner Jesse Owens won four gold medals in Dassler shoes. Due to personal differences, Rudolf Dassler left the company in 1947 to found his own company, "Puma", which also focused on the production of sporting goods. "Adi" Dassler continued to run the business alone, which he was able to keep on the road to success under the company name "adidas". In 1948, the famous three stripes were added as a distinctive design element, which still characterizes the corporate identity of "adidas" today. In 1952, Dassler also added sports bags to its product range. The company's offerings expanded continuously in the following years.
After the German national team won the 1954 World Cup wearing adidas shoes with the characteristic, replaceable studs, the company continued to expand. In 1959, the son of the company boss, Horst Dassler (1936-1987), began to lay the foundation for the company's international expansion by setting up "adidas France". Further company investments in other countries followed. Dassler's company now manufactured every conceivable sports and leisure clothing product and developed into the largest sporting goods manufacturer in the world by the 1970s. The "adidas" products became a synonym for sporting elegance and success; they increasingly determined the equipment of competitive athletes of international standing. After receiving numerous honors as an entrepreneur and pioneer of sportswear, he died
Adolf Dassler died on September 6, 1978 in Herzogenaurach.
In 1980, the son Horst Dassler joined the management under his mother Käthe Dassler, after whose death he served as CEO from 1985 to 1987. In the 1980s, the "adidas" range was expanded to include leisure clothing and cosmetics. Nevertheless, the company increasingly fell behind its US competitors. After Horst Dassler's early death in 1987, his heirs sold 80% of "adidas" to the French entrepreneur Bernard Tapie in the 1990s. A little later he sold his "adidas" shares to an international consortium. As a result of the purchase of the Salomon Group, the company expanded into adidas-Salomon in 1997. However, in October 2005, adidas sold its winter sports and outdoor division Salomon to the Finnish Amer Sports Corporation for more than 485 million euros after the division was only making losses.
