This timeline depicts the number of retail stores of the adidas Group worldwide from 2008 to 2017, by store type. In 2017, the adidas Group operated 1,557 concept stores worldwide.
Adidas
Adidas is on the move and always has been. It has had an adventurous history since it first grew out of a family business in Herzogenaurach, Germany in the 1920s. With the hostile separation of two brothers’ interests in the 1940s, nearly going bust in the 1980s and then executing two rescue operations, first by sending production offshore to Asia and then by reinventing itself into a design and marketing company.
Adidas AG is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second largest in the world. The company employed 58,902 people worldwide in 2017. The Adidas Group's global net sales amounted to about 21.22 billion euros in 2017. In 2014, the North American region of the adidas Group generated 19 percent of the company's retail net sales.
European football (soccer) is a main focus of Adidas as they are a major supplier of kits for various teams around the world such as Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus and AC Milan to name a few. The company also endorses some of the sport’s biggest names such as Mesut Özil, Toni Kroos, Paul Pogba and of course Lionel Messi. As a result, Adidas has become one of the most popular brands amongst men and women when it comes to sportswear worldwide.
The global sports and fitness clothing industry is highly fragmented, with many brands competing, from basic discount brands to high-end fashion names. Even well-established brands have to work hard to maintain their share of the market. Consumers are demanding more versatile wear with wider functionality, which means retailers continue producing new styles of sports apparel for men and women. In some instances, sports apparel companies, like Adidas and Puma, have begun collaborating with fashion designers in order to produce new styles which will broaden their product lines.
