Book The Adidas Archives. The Footwear Collection

The adidas story is one of groundbreaking designs, epic moments, and conceiving the all-around sports shoe, worn by the likes of Lionel Messi, Run DMC, and Madonna. A bible for sneaker fans, this book presents adidas’s history through almost 200 pairs of shoes, including one-of-a-kind originals, vintage models, and designer pieces.

100 years ago the brothers Adolf (“Adi”) and Rudolf Dassler made their first pair of sports shoes. Hundreds of groundbreaking designs, epic moments, and star-studded collabs later, this book presents the first visual review of the adidas shoe through more than 350 models including never-before-seen prototypes and one-of-a-kind originals.

To further develop and tailor his products to athletes’ specific needs, Dassler asked them to return their worn footwear when no longer needed, with all the shoes eventually ending up in his attic (to this day, many athletes return their shoes to adidas, often as a thank you after winning a title or breaking a world record). This collection now makes up the “adidas archive”, one of the largest, if not the largest archive of any sports goods manufacturer in the world—which photographers Christian Habermeier and Sebastian Jäger have been visually documenting in extreme detail for years.