The companys clothing and shoe designs typically feature three parallel stripes and the same motif is incorporated into Adidas current official logo. The company revenue for 2006 was listed at €10.084 billion or about US $13.625 billion and the 2007 figure was listed at €10.299 billion or about $15.6 billion.
Adolf Dassler started to produce his own sports shoes in his mothers wash kitchen after his return from World War I. In 1924 his brother Rudolf Dassler joined the business which became Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) and did well - selling 200,000 pairs of shoes each year before World War II.
However the brothers did not get on well and in 1948 they split up with Rudi forming Puma and Adi forming Adidas.
The company formally registered as adidas AG (with lower case lettering) on August 18 1949. The phrase All Day I Dream About Sports is used as a retronym for Adidas.
After a period of trouble following the death of Adolf Dasslers son Horst Dassler in 1987 the company was bought in 1989 by French industrialist Bernard Tapie for 1.6 billion French francs (now €243.918 million) which Tapie borrowed. Tapie was at the time a famous specialist of rescuing bankrupt companies an expertise on which he built his fortune.
Tapie decided to move production offshore to Asia. He also hired Madonna for promotion. He sent Walter Head from Christchurch New Zealand a shoe sales representative to Germany and met Adolf Dasslers descendants (Amelia Randall Dassler and Bella Beck Dassler) and was sent back with a few items to promote the company there.