Why is Adidas always innovating?

Adidas, the king of sporting goods, can be regarded as a spirit full of vitality. It has established a first-class corporate image with its never-ending spirit of innovation and meticulous service.

In the small town of Herzollach in Bavaria, Germany, there is a unique sports museum in the world.

The museum displays about 200 pairs of various sports shoes made by Adidas. Each pair of shoes comes in a glass box. However, each pair has its own unusual origin, including the spikes used by Owens in the 1936 Olympics and the high-top boxing shoes of Muhammad Ali...

This museum has attracted countless sports officials and World-class athletes visit and remind people of Adidas sporting goods.

Whenever people turn on the TV to watch exciting world sports programs, they will see those well-known athletes who are well-known in the sports world and are almost all wearing various colorful, novel styles and three-petal sportswear. Sportswear with leaf patterns is dominating international competitions, achieving consecutive successes. The high-end sports shoes with three stripes have become the darling of sports stars. They are able to dominate the world and dominate the world. Even their backpacks and rackets frequently flash images of three-leaf leaves.

Indeed, the sporting goods with three stripes and three leaves and the word ADIDAS are the traditional trademarks of Adidas, the largest sporting goods company in the world.

People often use the phrase "Wherever there is a world champion, there is Adidas" to describe Adidas' influence in the world of sports. There is no exaggeration or humility in saying so.

At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, 83 of the 100 jumping and running athletes wore Adidas shoes; 126 of the 147 gold medals went to athletes wearing Adidas products.

In the 1982 Spanish World Cup, among the 24 participating teams, 13 teams wore Adidas jerseys and 8 teams wore Adidas shoes. In the final, 61% of players shot with Adidas shoes.

The influence of Adidas is not only on the sports field. Even the world-famous symphony conductor Karajan wore Adidas when he was conducting on stage, with "triple leaves" and "three stripes". Dance to the beautiful melody.

In addition, the Indians in South America wear Adidas when hunting, and the skiers on the Nordic ski resorts also wear Adidas shoes...

" "Three-lobed leaves" and "three stripes" are like lively, cute and energetic elves, walking around every corner of the world.

The achievements of Adidas have attracted the attention of the world's sporting goods industry. However, its bumpy and tortuous entrepreneurial path is unknown to people.

In the small town of Herzorach in Bavaria, Germany, two brothers, Rudolf and Adi, were born. Due to the influence of their parents, they engaged in the shoemaking business when they grew up. Initially, they opened a shoe factory using their mother's laundry room. As their economic income continued to increase, they gradually expanded their business.

In order to open up sales, they worked day and night for several months to develop 14 novel styles of running shoes, and then sent people to sell them everywhere. In this way they gradually expanded their influence. In 1928, Adidas running shoes officially became the competition supplies of the Amsterdam World Olympic Games.

Due to various reasons, operations were limited. Until 1948, their factory only had more than 40 employees. Due to the shortage of funds, the equipment used is also old and crude, and production has stagnated. In this year, the two brothers had a conflict. Although many mediation efforts were carried out, it was still ineffective. In the end, the brothers had to part ways and go their separate ways.

Since then, a shoe factory in the town has turned into two companies. The two brothers became fierce competitors in the same industry. The two families heard each other's voices and never interacted with each other until death.

After a period of competition, the business conditions of both parties showed that the management ability of younger brother Adi is better than that of older brother Rudolf.

30 years have passed. After decades of hard work, his Adidas company has grown from a small factory with only a few dozen employees to a multinational company. At present, it is the world's largest sporting goods company with more than 40,000 employees and an annual output value of 3.9 billion marks.

Its branches are located in more than 50 countries around the world, and its products are sold in more than 160 countries and regions. It has become an inseparable "good partner" of sports stars and young people who pursue fashion and advocate bodybuilding.

Among the many sporting goods produced by Adidas, the most important product is football shoes. This alone produces more than 500 varieties and more than 280,000 pairs every year, ranking first in the sales of sporting goods in more than 150 countries.

Adi often said: "Modern sports are developing rapidly, and sports goods production must always pay attention to improving products to meet customer needs, otherwise there is a risk of being squeezed out."

< p>For many years, Adidas' products have been able to firmly attract customers and continuously expand the market. Among them, the never-ending spirit of innovation is the key to Adidas' success.

Once, Adidas found that the weight of football shoes is closely related to the physical exertion of athletes. In each one-and-a-half-hour game, the average athlete has to run 10,000 steps back and forth on the court. If each shoe is reduced by 100 grams, the physical exertion of athletes can be greatly reduced and their fighting ability improved.

Over half a century, the weight of football boots has dropped minimally, mainly due to the retention of the metal toes on football boots. In every game, even the most aggressive forward only has about 4 minutes of touch time. After repeated research, they decisively removed the metal toes on the shoes and designed a new football shoe that is half as light as the original. Once this shoe was put on the market, it was immediately well received, and football players and football enthusiasts rushed to buy it.

In 1954, Adidas seized the opportunity of the World Cup in Switzerland. Before the game, it went deep among the athletes and listened to their opinions and demands. They developed a football shoe with replaceable soles. The day of the final arrived. On that day, the Wankdorf Stadium in Bern was covered in mud. The Hungarian players on the field were running hard and embarrassed, but the Federal Republic of Germany players wearing the newly developed football shoes of Adidas were still vigorous and walking as fast as flying. As a result of the game, the Federal Republic of Germany football team became the world champion for the first time.

All of a sudden, Adidas' sports spikes have become a popular item.

Adidas also pays great attention to the trend of Western youth clothing, constantly updating patterns and colors, which makes people dizzy. No wonder people say that it is difficult to see the same style of Adidas sportswear. Later, they further developed more than 150 new products and launched them at the European Sportswear Expo in 1986, which added a lot to the organizers.

For more than 30 years, Adidas has developed one popular new product after another, such as rubber cam sole sneakers, various types of sneakers suitable for ice, snow, grass, and hard court games. In the 1960s, Sneakers developed using plastic instead of leather, sneakers with soles made of three different hardness materials put into production in the 1970s, new track and field shoes produced in the early 1980s, the screws of the spikes can be adjusted according to the competition venue and the weight of the athletes. , technical characteristics and the position of exertion and self-adjustment. As early as 1978, Adidas had obtained more than 700 patents worldwide and locally for football shoes alone.

Another main reason for Adidas' long-lasting prosperity is their meticulous and perfect service quality.

Every time Adidas develops a new product, it always invites world sports stars, coaches, and experts in medicine, biology, and mechanics to offer suggestions and solicit their opinions on the new product. Those who speak out or provide valuable opinions will be heavily rewarded. Before the product is finalized and put into mass production, athletes are allowed to try it out and put forward suggestions for improvement.

This kind of perfect service quality has also benefited Adidas a lot.

They especially cherish the company's reputation, and many of their practices have become good news in the international sports world.

Rumenigge, the star of the West German football team, is a player with flat feet. After the company found out, it specially sewed a pair of sneakers for him, so that he could gallop on the battlefield and repeatedly perform extraordinary feats.

Adidas never conceals product defects and shortcomings caused during the production process, let alone prevaricates. Instead, it honestly admits and wins the trust of users with practical actions.

In the Spanish World Cup, Soviet team center Blokhin complained that Adidas sneakers were uncomfortable to wear. The company representative present immediately traced his feet, flew back to Adidas headquarters overnight, and immediately rushed to make them. A pair of new shoes that fit well were sent back. Such efficient service impressed the celebrities and turned to work for them.

In 1948, in the marathon final of the 14th Olympic Games held in London, Belgian runner Albert Sparke was far ahead. Unexpectedly, halfway through the race, the Adidas shoes he was wearing broke and cracked. Expanding, I saw that the gold medal in my hand was finally lost.

This scandal spread like wildfire and quickly spread all over the world, greatly affecting the credibility of Adidas.

Faced with this heavy blow, the leaders of Adidas were calm and decided to restore the impact at all costs. For running shoes that have been sold around the world, no matter how worn they are, they will be recovered at the original price. In addition, it also compensates merchants in various places who sell such running shoes for all economic losses caused by this. At the same time, they also paid close attention to internal rectification and continuously improved quality. After a period of hard work, they finally restored Adidas' reputation.

Adidas attaches great importance to advertising. In order to establish its corporate image, they do everything possible and spend huge sums of money.

Adidas had just invented a spiked shoe for sprinting, coinciding with the 1936 Berlin Olympics. When they predicted that the African American sprinter Owens was very likely to win the gold medal, they gave Owens spike shoes to wear. As a result, Owens won four gold medals in a row wearing Adidas running shoes. As a result, Adidas' new running shoes set off a worldwide sales climax.

In 1984, Adidas gave the world-famous basketball star Langton a huge sum of US$500,000 as a reward for wearing Adidas tennis shoes in various competitions.

They donate 3%-6% of the profits of their products to famous athletes and powerful teams in various countries. At the World Football Star Benefit held in California, the United States, 22 athletes, including superstar Maradona, all wore Adidas sportswear to compete, leaving a deep impression on sports fans from all over the world.

All participating players in the 1985 World Hockey Team A and B teams stood under the trefoil banner of Adidas. There is no doubt that these are the best advertisements.

These expenditures are by no means a worthless waste. They have brought greater economic benefits, greater fame, and more prosperous business to Adidas.

Despite their achievements, Adidas is not resting on its laurels. They never relax their competition with domestic Puma, American Nike, Jaguar, Italy's Pacino and Japan's Tiger. Their goal is to gradually occupy the three important markets of China, the United States, and Japan, with a total output value exceeding 4 billion marks. To this end, they first reorganized the business department and promoted young and middle-aged people to the front line of distribution. In addition, we continue to change the old business methods, increase the number of developed varieties, and prepare to advance into sports-related rehabilitation, recreation, tourism, daily cosmetics and other fields, opening up a new path for the company's future development.