Some of these brands have been serving the world of sports for decades
Be it football, cricket or any other sport; players have consistently required special equipment, garments and shoes. Keeping in mind the needs of the teams and players, several entrepreneurs began producing those items decades ago. Those were the times when they were local businesses serving items to local teams and players. However, their business flourished as various sports spread like a wildfire in the entire world. As numerous countries took part in football, basketball and other forms of sports; those companies started to supply sports items to all those countries. In the process, the firms swung into famous brands such as Adidas, Puma, Under Armour to cite a few.
In this column, we look at how old some of these glorious sports manufacturing brands are that have been functioning for ages.
Adidas- One of the oldest sports apparel manufacturers in the world, Adidas hails from the country of Germany. The company was founded as GebrüderDasslerSchuhfabrik in 1924 by Adolf Dassler and his elder brother Rudolf Dassler. The name was turned into Adidas in 1949 and the company introduced its first apparel in 1967. Moving on to association with sports governing bodies, the first association took place in 1970 with FIFA when FIFA commissioned Adidas to make football for different competitions. Later on, the brand associated with several other sports such as cricket, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, running, skateboarding, tennis and more.
Nike- The biggest sports apparel company in the world, Nike was founded in 1964 by founders Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. When founded, the company was called Blue Ribbon Sports and in its inaugural year; it sold 1,300 pair of shoes worth 8,000 dollars. Over the years, the company has tied up with numerous sports and sporting legends. For example, Nike is famous for designing and manufacturing beautiful Michael Jordan shoes.
Puma- You would be surprised to know that the brand Puma came out of Adidas. In the second paragraph, we mentioned Adolf Dassler and his brother, Rudolf Dassler, formed Adidas. However, in 1948, the relationship between the two brothers deteriorated, and that’s when Rudolf formed the brand Ruda. Later on, he turned the name into Puma. In the present era, Puma is the third-largest sportswear manufacturer in the world. Apart from manufacturing sportswear for physical sports, Puma is also famous for creating merchandises for motorsports such as Formula One. The German brand has contracts with F1 teams such as Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari.
