If you wanted to know about adidas, and hear the story of an incredibly hard working person fixated on his passions, then you should check out BuzzFeed’s piece “Changing Stripes” by Reggie Ugwu. It details how Paul Gaudio transformed the brand and its products while steering it towards the number one spot in sportswear. Here are a couple excerpts:
As creative director, Gaudio is in charge of 650 designers that dream up everything Adidas makes — from shoes to clothing to posts on Instagram. He brings with him over 20 years of experience at the company — most of his adult life — and has approached the task of renovating its identity with a familial sense of devotion. He began at Adidas making far-out footwear prototypes as an advanced concepts designer in 1991 and has worked for the brand on and off ever since. During his longest period away, between 2000 and 2007, he helped redesign and resurrect the flagship vehicle of Norton Motorcycles — a British legacy brand — as a passion project.
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“It’s a collective consciousness rather than a set of directions,” he told me of this approach. “The brand is a narrative — it’s an idea that people both inside and outside the company have to buy into. My role is to shape the narrative: ‘What do we stand for? Why are we here? How do we think and feel and act?’”
This piece is well worth the read, regardless if you’re an adidas fan or not — the story is that good. You can head over to BuzzFeed to read it, and if you do, make sure to stop back here with comments.
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What a great read. Adidas is tied with Brandblack as my favorite brands as of currently. The products they came out with this year are a perfect blend of fashion and function IMO. Hopefully they’ll keep doing what they’re doing.
///, UA, and BB are tied for my top three. All three bands are innovating and I love to see that. there is an enormous gap ($15 billion) between Nike at number one and adidas and Under Armour battling it out for the number two spot.