sport news JONNY OWEN: For all their glorious history, there's no running away from this ... trends now
My love of adidas and the culture of terrace fashion is a lifelong one. I reckon I have owned a few hundred pairs. My latest favourites are the old classics, Gazelles and Jeans - although recently I've loved a pair of blue and yellow Zurros.
I have summer colour trainers (or 'daps' as we call them in South Wales) and wear the more robust leather Sambas in the winter months. It's different pairs for different days and I'll tell you now it's not just me. Thousands of us do it.
There are my mates Tony and Robin and Dave. We've been doing it for over 35 years and we'll be doing it when we're on Zimmer frames. I mean, what's more comfortable as you get older than your favourite old trainers?
Meanwhile, the global 'sneaker' market is predicted to reach $120billion by 2026 and Sotheby's have recently appointed Brahm Wachter as Head of Streetwear and Modern Collectables (AKA 'Head of Sneakers').
This followed the sale of a game-worn pair of Michael Jordan's Nike Air Jordan 1s for $560,000 in an auction in 2020. One pair. Half a million quid!
My love of adidas is a lifelong one but the famous brand is currently engulfed in a huge crisis
the sportswear powerhouse entered into a collaboration with the designer and rapper Kanye West (now known as Ye), but the contract was torn up following his discriminatory language
The fall-out of West praising infamous dictator Adolf Hitler left adidas with a mountain of unsold 'Yeezy' product while admitting they could suffer an operating loss of $750m this year
The days of the gloriously permed Kevin Keegan posing in ridiculously tight shorts and Patrick boots in Shoot! magazine have been replaced by super-brands launching limited edition releases associated with celebrities, fashion houses or hip-hop artists.
Which brings us to the crisis that is engulfing adidas. And it's a fine mess indeed. If you don't know, the sportswear powerhouse entered into a collaboration with the designer and rapper Kanye West (now known as Ye).
The contract was terminated following his discriminatory language, including praising Adolf Hitler. The fall-out left adidas with a mountain of unsold 'Yeezy' product while admitting they could suffer an operating loss of $750m this year.
That's a lot of trainers. They also announced an investigation into claims he created a toxic environment, including showing explicit images of himself and his ex-wife Kim Kardashian to adidas staff.
This week has seen investors file a lawsuit in Oregon, claiming adidas did not take the artist's outspoken past into account when employing him as a brand collaborator. adidas says it will 'vigorously defend itself'.
I find it strange that a company with such an acute awareness of its own remarkable history didn't foresee trouble ahead. Founded by cobbler brothers in 1949, Adolf and Rudolph Dassler would later spectacularly fall out.
To such an extent, they divided everything they had in half and staff were allowed to pick which brother they followed. What was to become a famous Bavarian German town was split between Adolf's (Adi's) adidas and Rudolph's new Puma franchise.
The rest of Germany even had a saying for it. It roughly translated as: 'check the feet of the people in Herzogenaurach and you know by their shoes who they work for.' Families employed at one factory would rarely socialise or inter-marry with the other.
adidas provided the shoes for Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics
Success that so enraged Hitler, as an African American beating all before him, he stormed from the stadium. That story saved the adidas factory from being flattened by the Americans
The famous old company has taken a few kicks before - but this one might hurt for a bit longer
When West Germany won the World Cup in 1954, they wore adidas screw-in studs and the impact it had on the German economy gave its people a pride (remember they were an international pariah) that cannot be understated.
It's such a great shame the brothers never made up because, between them, by the time they died the world's largest sports brands had been created. Imagine what might have been working together?
My favourite story remains of how, when they still were a partnership, they saved their factory as The Allies, led by the Americans, rolled into Herzogenaurach. Their sportswear factory was now producing German anti-tank guns for the Wehrmacht. We'd know them better as Bazookas.
The order was given to American tanks to flatten it. Remarkably Adi's wife Kathe stood in front of them and shouted to one of the commanders that her husband was the man who had provided the running shoes for American athlete Jesse Owens, winner of
