adidas
adidas, also known as The Three Stripes Brand, is a German sportswear company founded in 1949 by Adolf “Adi” Dassler. With roots in track and football, it has become a global player within the sneaker industry over the past 70 years.
With influence spanning football, basketball, tennis, skateboarding, fencing, and other sports, the company’s first performance-related breakthrough occurred in 1936 within the running space. Jesse Owens famously wore Dassler’s revolutionary canvas and rubber spiked running shoe in the Summer Olympics held in Germany that year. And while Owens’ record-breaking performance at the global competition brought adidas attention, the brand hadn’t yet found its identity; the spikes didn’t feature the brand’s now-signature 3-Stripes logo. (adidas acquired this branding from Finland’s Karhu in 1952.)
The German company achieved similar attention in subsequent decades within both the basketball and tennis spaces thanks to the Superstar (1969) and Stan Smith (1973), respectively. Other made-for-sports models like the adidas Top Ten (1979) and adidas Forum (1984) similarly became lifestyle staples in New York, Boston, Chicago, and other cities. adidas’ Superstar became the unofficial shoe of hip-hop in the 1980s largely due to RUN DMC’s superstardom. (The shell-toe was the best-selling sneaker in North America in 2016.) While less popular stateside, running silhouettes like the SL 72 (1972) and ZX 500 (1984) boast devoted fans of trainers across Europe and Asia. These silhouettes have experienced resurgences throughout the decades, and are now offered under the adidas Originals banner.
Recent years have seen 3-Stripes-branded sneakers soar in popularity, in large part because of the Kanye West led Yeezy sub-label and UltraBOOST, as well as BOOST and adidas 4D cushioning. The German company has also pioneered high-fashion collaborations, hosting Yohji Yamamoto’s Y-3 imprint since 2003. In 2020, classic silhouettes were reimagined by Prada and Craig Green. Elsewhere, partnerships with Beyoncé’s IVY PARK, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Jonah Hill, Pharrell and others ensured adidas remained the global behemoth it has been for decades.
Throughout 2024, the Three Stripes will surely continue its run as a proponent of the mix between sportswear and fashion. On this end, the brand signed FEAR OF GOD‘s Jerry Lorenzo to drive the creative and business strategy of its basketball category, culminating in the release of the Fear of God Athletics adidas Basketball 1, a shoe set for plenty of releases as the year draws on. It’s also been a banner year for adidas Basketball in terms of their signature athletes, with the German giant releasing Anthony Edwards’ AE1 & James Harden Vol. 8, while continuing a push for the Trae Young 3 and D.O.N. Issue #5.
Scroll below for the latest release dates and information on what adidas has in store for this year.
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adidas
solebox Adds Glow-In-The-Dark Outsoles To Its Minimalist adidas UltraBOOST 1.0 And Ultra 4D
Over the last decade, Berlin’s solebox has been delivering compelling adidas collaborations, which include an Uncaged UltraBOOST from 2016. To commemorate the evolutionary design, both...
adidas Unveils The Lightest UltraBOOST Ever Amid BOOST’s 10th Anniversary
In 2013, adidas revolutionized the world of sport with the launch of the EnergyBOOST. The shoe introduced BOOST technology to the running world and helped...
The Rich Mnisi x adidas “Pride Collection” Features Three ULTRA 4D Colorways
Penning a hand-written letter to his younger queer-self, “let love be your legacy” has served as the core of South African designer Rich Mnisi’s contemporary...
The adidas UltraBOOST Comes Clad In “Wonder Taupe”
The adidas UltraBOOST remains an integral part of the Three-Stripes regular offerings, providing a tried-and-true performance-based silhouette since 2015. Continuing to invoke the silhouettes readily...
adidas Preps The UltraBOOST For Valentine’s Day 2023 With Hearts And Multi-color Outsoles
February 14 is two weeks away. As such, some of the biggest players in the sneaker space have been revealing their Valentine’s Day collections. Recently,...
A “Better Scarlet” Heel Shines On The adidas UltraBOOST 1.0
For a half decade the original adidas UltraBOOST remained untouched as the Three Stripes brand toiled with subliminal tooling updates that paled in comparison to...
The adidas UltraBOOST 1.0 Appears In Grey Tones For Women’s
The adidas UltraBOOST 1.0 has recently returned to the spotlight with a mix of old and new color schemes. Recently the silhouette emerged in a...
Another adidas UltraBOOST 1.0 Retro Takes On A Greyscale Outfit
The adidas UltraBOOST 1.0 debuted in 2015, but it still forms an important part of the brand’s roster of products. Previously touted as the “DNA,”...
The adidas UltraBOOST 1.0 “Gum Pack” Lands In Men’s And Women’s Sizes
To this day, many still favor the UltraBOOST‘s original version, often lamenting the fact that adidas made it obsolete with subsequent updates. But now —...