Adidas and the Creation of a Transnational Market for German Athletic Shoes, 1948–1978

Abstract

Adidas was established by Adolf Dassler in 1948. The firm produced athletic footwear and, over three decades, experienced phenomenal growth. When Dassler died in 1978, Adidas dominated international sporting goods markets. This chapter considers how the carefully tailored products and marketing appealed to specific consumer groups, but also the extent to which sales were driven by broader attempts at social engineering. It argues that consumption is linked to social practices, and that shifts in practice stimulate and create markets. To understand Adidas’s mainstream success, it examines how Adidas encouraged consumption of its products, especially as it moved beyond domestic markets, and how the firm and its consumers fit into a wider context of postwar change and government-led sports initiatives and Sport-for-All campaigns.