The story of adidas is made of innovation, epic moments, and care for the sports footwear worn by stars like Messi, Run-DMC, and Madonna. This book, a true haven for sneaker enthusiasts, presents the history of adidas through nearly 200 pairs of shoes, from unique originals and vintage models to design pieces.
The visual history of adidas
It all began in his mother’s laundry room, in the quiet German town of Herzogenaurach, over 100 years ago. There Adolf Dassler, known to all as “Adi,” and his brother Rudolf made their first pair of sports shoes. After hundreds of innovative designs, iconic moments, and countless collaborations with great figures,
this book presents a visual history of adidas sneakers through nearly 200 models.
To develop and improve the fit of his products to the specific needs of athletes, Dassler asked them to return worn-out shoes when they no longer needed them, footwear that he ended up storing in his attic (even today many athletes return their shoes to adidas, often as thanks after winning a title or breaking a world record).
This collection now forms the adidas Historical Archive, one of the largest archives of all sports goods manufacturers worldwide,
visually documented over years in great detail by photographers Christian Habermeier and Sebastian Jäger.
Thanks to the use of very advanced reproduction techniques, the images reveal subtle details such as stains, tears, pieces of repair tape, grass marks, or faded autographs.
Everything is captured with extremely high resolution and without retouching to bring to light the personal stories of those who wore each pair.
We can see the shoes of the Federal Republic of Germany’s football team in their “miraculous” victory at the 1954 World Cup or those Kathrine Switzer wore when she ran the Boston Marathon in 1967, before women could officially participate;
customized models for great stars, from Madonna to Lionel Messi; collaborations with artists like Pharrell Williams, Raf Simons, Stella McCartney, or Yohji Yamamoto;
as well as the brand’s pioneering techniques and materials.
About the photographers and authors
Christian Habermeier has worked as a photographer and designer since 1989. He studied Communication Design and was a professor of Photography and Digital Illustration from 2000 to 2006. He has carried out projects in Cuba, Kenya, Nepal, India, Switzerland, and Hong Kong, among others. In 2000 he founded studio waldeck photographers, with which he realized his goal of creating a CO₂-neutral studio.
Sebastian Jäger studied design at the Georg-Simon-Ohm University of Applied Sciences in Nuremberg, where he met Christian Habermeier, his future partner, in 2005. Their studio, waldeck photographers, serves clients in industry and the cultural sector. Since 2011, both have been dedicated to visualizing the adidas historical archives.
