Rudolf Dassler, The Founder Of Adidas Brand

　　 Rudolf Dassler In 1924, he joined his brother Adolf Dassler (nicknamed Adi) in the Dassler Company in Herorah, and changed the name of the company to Dassler Brothers. In the mid-1930s, Darles Brothers grew into a leading global sports shoe brand with nearly 100 employees and more than 30 styles. After the Second World War, the Dulles Brothers Company resumed its business with 47 employees, and made the first sneakers after the war by extracting rubber from canvas and American fuel tank.

In 1948, Adolf Dassler changed the name of Dassler Brothers Company to "adidas" by the combination of Adi and das. The two brothers parted ways from each other. His brother Rudolf Dassler established PUMA Company, which is the same direction as adidas. Both of them focus on the production of sports goods. From then on, they became competitors. Adidas is just as important to Adidas as Phil Knight is to Nike, but his influence always exceeds the latter. He is not only a track and field athlete and sports enthusiast, but also an entrepreneur and inventor who advocates technology, quality and is keen on innovation. He listened to the opinions of athletes, participated in track and field competitions in person, sat on the bench and analyzed their needs for sports shoes with the players. "Function first" is the main theme of the company, and "giving the best to athletes" has become the slogan of the company.

From the very beginning, adidas has taken product innovation as its driving force for development. Adidas is the initiator of many technological breakthroughs, and has obtained more than 700 patents. In Adidas, the world's first pair of skates, the first pair of multi spike shoes, and the first pair of plastic cast football spikes were born... In particular, Adidas' screw in studs are a very revolutionary concept, and people even think that they contributed a lot to the German football team's winning of the World Cup in 1954.

Especially in the Dassler family, Horst Dassler, the eldest son of Adidas Dassler, has extraordinary marketing talent. He pioneered the establishment of a "pyramid" promotion model for Adidas brand, and took the lead in visually connecting Adidas sporting goods with athletes, sports teams, large-scale competitions and related sports activities. Under his advocacy, Adidas became the first company to give free sports shoes to outstanding athletes, and the first company to sign a long-term contract with sports teams to provide sports shoes and socks, making people see excellent athletes wearing Adidas' new products in many world-class games. It is worth tracing back to the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, when Adidas introduced its subsidiary brand, "Melbourne", and introduced improved multi spike sneakers. In that year, the players wearing Adidas sporting goods broke 33 records and won 72 gold medals.

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In 1980, the sales of adidas sporting goods reached 1 billion dollars. The market share of major product categories is up to 70%. The company produces 150 different styles of sports shoes, and the daily output of 24 factories in 17 countries has reached 200000 pairs. Adidas products are sold in 150 countries.

　　 A tragic fate in history

Before the 1980s, Adidas Sporting goods have an extraordinary brand position in the minds of consumers. A survey at that time analyzed that more than half of the Americans wore Adidas sports shoes, and the number of athletes wearing Adidas to participate in the New York Marathon increased from 150 in 1970 to 5000 in 1979. However, after entering the 1980s, Adidas ignored the rise of jogging in the United States, the world's largest sports product market. The number of consumers at the bottom of the pyramid who participated in running activities increased sharply. Adidas missed the opportunity and let the sports star Nike seize the opportunity and finally achieved great success. This may be the question that successful people often encounter: why should they invest in unfamiliar fields? Jogging is not a group or competitive sports event. It is different from the market that the company is familiar with. Jokers are not among the three levels in the adidas pyramid. Adidas is also unable to establish contact with any team, club or organization.

There is also some element of "arrogance". Adidas designers are amateurs in designing shoes for joggers. They feel that lowering the requirements for running shoes seems to be lowering the professional level. Although they finally designed a new running shoe, they thought it would make anyone who wore it lame, so they called it "lame". Adidas' attitude is similar to that of German automobile companies when Lexus appeared: good cars are for serious drivers, who do not need soft seats and cup holders.

Adidas finally noticed the upsurge of running and fitness. But when he came late to launch new products, the appeal of the products was not clear, which deviated from the core value of the brand. In addition, the marketing plan of adidas sporting goods still follows the model of the 1970s, while Nike has created and innovated many methods of use. It is not surprising that Adidas has a brand problem, especially young people think Adidas is very conservative and easy to use, but not fashionable.

in the meantime, Nike It began to become the leader of the industry, with a market share of 33%, and reached 50% two years later. On the contrary to Nike, the market share of Adidas has declined rapidly. Of course, adidas' decline at this time also comes from its internal management deficiencies. After the death of Adidas Skyler in 1978, Adidas lost its main driving force for technological innovation. The death of Horst Dassler in 1985 made Adidas lose a brand manager with brand foresight, and the Adidas brand began to shake. In 1989, the company sold to Bernard Tapier, a controversial Frenchman. Tapir's political ambitions outweighed his business interests. Three years later, when he found himself in financial difficulties, he transferred the control of Adidas to a French bank consortium.

This is the most painful scene in adidas' history. From 1988 to 1992, the annual sales of Adidas dropped from 2 billion to 1.7 billion dollars, while the annual sales of Nike increased from 1.7 billion to 3.4 billion dollars in the same period. In the 1970s, Adidas was still the leader of the American market, while in 1992, its market share was only 3%. From 1991 to 1992, in Germany, the main European market of Adidas dropped from 40% to 34%, while Nike increased from 14% to 18%. At the same time, Nike's sales in Europe increased by 38%, while Adidas dropped by almost 20%, and the company lost 100 million dollars It was not until 1993 that there was a slight improvement.