adidas

Adolf 'Adi' Dassler and his brother Rudolf began making sports shoes in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, in 1924; after the brothers fell out and Rudolf left to found Puma, Adi registered adidas in 1949. The three stripes, the trefoil logo of 1971 and shoes such as the Samba, Stan Smith and Superstar carried the brand from the pitch and the track into street style, and adidas is now Europe's largest sportswear company and the world's second largest after Nike, still based in Herzogenaurach.