Adidas
The Untold Story
ALL Day I Dream About Sports
Adidas works with 1,230 independent factories as subcontractors from around the world who manufactured their products in 69 countries. Many of these are in one of the following five countries: China, India, Indonesia, Thailand or Vietnam.
Adidas was founded in 1924 in Germany by two bothers Adi and Rudolf Dassler. The company was first named Dassler shoes and later became Adidas. The 3 stripes were created to keep the foot stable, but ended up being the logo. Throughout the years Adidas was seen in the Olympics, and it was the leading brand making their shoes known after by Olympic athletes.
Adidas, being a well-known shoe, clothing, sport gear brand, the company has grown to innovate in sports apparel and other products designed to support athletes. Adidas continues to remain a dominate brand and very competitive, attempting to cut production costs over the years. This led to the lawsuit against Adidas for using prison labor in China in 1998. A political prisoner in china decides to sue Adidas, stating inmates at his labor camp were forced to make promotional soccer ball for a subcontractor.
Subcontractor backlash in the 1980s and 1990s has caused human rights groups to review the deplorable working conditions in factories around the world. Adidas and other brands were frequently targeted; Anti-sweatshop pressure groups protested against Adidas success in sporting goods. Adidas pays off subcontractors to fulfill its production order, and like many multinational brands, they do not have control over any workers wages, conditions or abuse.Till this day, Adidas remains to be a dominant brand that continues to be successful with sporting goods and subcontractors. Adidas Motive is to stregnthen their brands and products to improve their competitive position and financial performance.