Adidas AG is a multinational corporation based in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Adidas has developed immensely over the years and has expanded globally. They design and manufacture athletic apparel, athletic equipment, clothing, and footwear. It all started in 1949 when a man named Adolf “Adi” Dassler founded the company of Adidas. The company flourished under Dassler’s management and many professional sports teams and athletes began to wear this brand. Dick Fosbury, a US high jumper who revolutionized the high jump by introducing a new technique called the “Fosbury Flop,” won the gold at the 1968 Olympic Games wearing the Adidas brand spikes. This association between athlete and brand continued to expand during the 1970‘s and Adidas capitalized off their endorsements. In 1974, the German national soccer team became known the “Adidas Team” when they won the 1974 FIFA World Cup wearing Adidas. These athletes and endorsers have greatly publicized this brand. On September 6, 1978, Adi Dassler died and his son, Horst Dassler, carried on the legacy. Horst Dassler founded Arena, a famous brand of swimwear, and it became a big part of Adidas. Adidas’s worldwide popularity continued to grow to such an extent that in 1986 the popular rap group, Run DMC released a song titled, “My Adidas.” Nine years after Adolf Dassler’s death, Horst Dassler died. After Horst Dassler died, a french entrepreneur named Bernard Tapie bought Adidas for 243.9 million euros. He decided to change things at Adidas. He moved production offshore to Asia and New Zealand, and hired Madonna, an entertainer, not an athlete, for promotion of the company. His strategy did not work. In 1992, Tapie had to sell Adidas to Robert Louis-Dreyfus because of poor leadership and inability to pay loan interest. With new management under Robert Louis-Dreyfus, Adidas moved from being a manufacturing and sales based company to a marketing company in 1994. This maneuver increased the sales and publicity of the company. 1995 was when Adidas first went public with the flotation of the company on the Frankfurt and Paris Stock Exchange, and since then, Adidas has be