Adidas may be one of the only companies that Cancel Culture has been unable to overtake. Before Geriatric Millennials and Gen Xers were wearing their very best Adidas shoes, courtesy of Run DMC‘s 1986 song anthem, the brand wasn’t exactly known for embracing African-American culture. In fact, its 1949 founder Adolf “Adi” Dassler was a documented member of the Nazi Party.
Although Adidas certainly doesn’t bring attention to his affiliation in the brand’s timeline, the brand doesn’t hide the founder’s name either. Dassler became the supervisor of the Hitler Youth Sports league, but there are some conflicting reports about whether he was politically enthused with his affiliation or whether his “sole purpose was to support athletes, regardless of political affiliation, religious faith or ethnicity.”
Then, add on images of Jesse Owens, the African-American winner of four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, who was wearing Dassler’s new handcrafted, leather track shoes at the 1936 Olympics. At the time, the tracks that Jesse Owens had to run on were made from cinders, and the Adidas shoes he wore had extra-long, hand-forged spikes to push off when the race started. Owens became a legend in track and simultaneously challenged Adolf Hitler’s intention to claim “Aryan superiority” in athletics. But the controversy continued onward even after Run DMC made their shoes cool to wear in the hip-hop industry.
Fast-forward to 2022 when Adidas cut ties with Kanye West for alleged antisemitism, and politics versus fashion versus race gets complicated again. That is, until Adidas Basketball celebrated WNBA icon Candace Parker and her new role as president of Adidas Women’s Basketball.
Cue Jay Z’s “Meet the Parents” lyrics, “First they love me, then they hate me, then they love me again.” That’s what it’s like for Adidas fans (and probably the company itself), even though the apparel company has a market cap of $41.51 billion, as of November 2024.
What Is Adidas’ Net Worth In 2024?
In Adidas’ latest financial report, the company’s current earnings are $24.64 billion. Always on the side of being tech-forward, this brand is behind 2017’s Futurecraft 4D, “the world’s first high performance piece of footwear, featuring midsoles crafted with light and oxygen using Digital Light Synthesis.” The aforementioned material is a technology pioneered by carbon. Adidas reportedly manufactured 5,000 pairs of the digitally produced shoes in 2017, selling for $300 each. That same year, they took market share from their closest competitor Nike, doubling shares from 6% to 12%.
In the middle of the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak, in 2021, Adidas re-launched the 1974 “Impossible Is Nothing” campaign with home footage of some of the who’s who in the industry. Murals popped up in New York City with everyone from track-and-field gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee to NBA player James Harden.
And from 2022 to now, Adidas has launched Futurecraft Strung, partnered with Gucci, released the adidas X Gucci Gazelle shoe and its “lightest ever” shoe Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1, and earned “Shoe of the Year” by Footwear News with the Samba shoe on November 29, 2023. The Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 was originally a limited run of 521 pairs retailing at roughly $500 each, but a second release launched in November 2024.
This year, their new campaign is “You Got This” with highlights from worldwide athletes. The brand is still going strong, reporting 14% underlying growth and gross profit margins above 51% of projected numbers, according to a recent press release. After celebrating its 75th anniversary, through all the marketing highs and lows, they clearly “got this” as well.
