Adi Dassler made his first shoes in 1920 when he was just 20 years old. His vision was to provide every athlete with the best footwear for his respective discipline. It was this principle that guided him right up until his death in 1978. 700 patents and other industrial property rights worldwide are proof of his permanent quest for perfection.

Adi Dassler's first shoe was produced from canvas, one of the few materials available in the difficult post-war period. A passionate athlete himself, from the very beginning Adi Dassler was in close contact with sports participants and was always present in person at important sporting events. He focused his work on the classic disciplines of track and field. Athletes wore special shoes from his workshop for the first time at the 1928 Olympics held in Amsterdam. In the mid 1920's he was already experimenting with spikes.

In the mid 1930's, Adi Dassler was already making 30 different shoes for eleven sports, and he had a workforce of almost 100 employees. In less than two decades, adidas advanced to become the world's leading sports shoe manufacturer.

After the turmoil of World War II, Adi Dassler made a fresh start. In 1947, with 47 workers, he began putting into practice the knowledge gained from the pre-war period and also progressed with new ideas. Adi Dassler made the first post-war sports shoes using canvas and recycled rubber from American fuel tanks. In 1948 he introduced adidas as the company name, a combination of his own first and last name. One year later he registered the - to this day - unmistakable Three Stripes.

Parallel to the rapid developments in sport, Adi Dassler strove to specialise and optimise his products. Adi Dassler was the first entrepreneur to use sports promotion in order to make the public aware of his innovations. He started using well-known athletes to endorse his products such as Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, Max Schmeling, Sepp Herberger and Franz Beckenbauer who all counted themselves among the friends of the Dassler Family.

Aggressive publicity became one of the cornerstones of his corporate policy. From now on, Adi Dassler came up with a product innovation for every major event, documenting the superiority of adidas footwear. In constant contact with active athletes in a wide variety of disciplines, he developed the optimal shoe for almost every sport. Together with his son Horst, Adi Dassler created an international company that was, and still is, present at all the world's sporting events. From the mid 1960s, adidas also started producing apparel for competition and training.

Adi Dassler died in 1978, at the age of 78. Carrying on his heritage and his ideas, his name and his developments will continue to help athletes in their efforts to push the limits of performance for many generations to come.