The story of adidas is essentially the story of Adolf Dassler, the creator and founder of the sports goods company. His idea was to provide athletes with the optimal equipment for their sport. What started out in 1920 in a small workshop as a three-man...

By the early 1980s in England competition sponsorship had opened the way to club shirt sponsorship. Abroad, the wearing of product names on club shirts was already common. In 1978 Liverpool became the first British club to have a shirt sponsor.Sponsors...