In the upcoming season, the adidas Sport Heritage division underlines its authentic Originals collection with some unique collector’s items. The Fall/Winter 2004 collection, containing products dating back as far as the 50s, highlights several themes, including basketball, football and mountaineering.
Representing the state-of-the-art performance products that adidas offered athletes from the 20s to the 80s, today adidas Originals speaks through its product about great (hi)stories in sports.
The first suit in adidas’ history, the one-to-one copy of the very first bag Adi Dassler ever made and elegant evening wear are just some of the highlights all linking back to the unmistakable great sporting history of the Trefoil brand.
adidas Originals brings to life the past of the brand with the 3-Stripes; behind every Trefoil there is a story worth telling. To find out more about the “Leopards” and “Der Bomber”, please contact adidas Public Relations.
Every Trefoil has a story
Football
The Fall/Winter 2004 collection is directly inspired by the 1974 FIFA World Cup, hosted and won by Germany. All our apparel styles are direct re-introductions from our rich World Cup archive, or they are re-designed inspired by the many hours of exciting footage from 1974. This is complemented by footwear and accessories which allow the wearer to style around the football theme.
The Leopards
Zaire was one of the first African teams to appear at a football World Cup; they qualified for the 1974 tournament in Germany. Whilst the 'Leopards' played to the best of their abilities, events off the pitch made it a really turbulent tournament form them. Just before facing Yugoslavia, the team learnt they would not be getting compensated for their hard work on the pitch. Understandably annoyed, the team refused to play Yugoslavia until the very last minute, however put up no fight and were convincingly beaten by nine goals to zero. The final game of the Leopards was against Brazil, and on top of not being reimbursed for their efforts the team were also told that if they lost by more than four goals they would not be allowed to return home. This time Zaire went on to put up an honest fight losing only 0-3! The team was outfitted by adidas for this decisive match and, as we all know, Zaire never played again as a team in the World Cup as the country is currently called the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Der Bomber
Gerd Müller was quite simply one of the best strikers of the modern era: he still holds the record for the most goals scored in World Cups (14 goals in 10 matches at the tournaments in 1970 and 1974) and he is also still the all-time top scorer of the German Bundesliga with 365 goals. His loyal German fans nicknamed him "Der Bomber" in recognition of this ability to score from any impossible situation. In the German Bundesliga too, he was a permanent fixture on the score card, scoring for Bayern Munich and helping them register domestic and European titles. The 1974 final was Müller's last match for Germany, though he continued playing until 1978 before a short spell in the United States. His extraordinary goal-scoring record says it all: 68 goals in 62 appearances for Germany, 365 in 628 for Bayern Munich. Please note as well the Gerd Müller boot: it is offered in various colours and was probably the first ever coloured football boot.
Collector’s item
Some of the finest pieces from the adidas archive are re-introduced or re-interpreted in this Fall/Winter 2004 season. The archive’s first bag is now re-released as a one-to-one copy of the very first bag Adi Dassler ever produced. We are speaking 1954 here. This rare 50 years commemorative collector's item features original artwork from a glorious period in the history of sport. The original print on the front says it all: "The sport shoe of the world’s best".
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