Bikini

One can see the trend toward reduction in the following styles: slingshot, mini, teardrop, minimini, micro, and, what could be called a double g-string, the minimicro. This takeover was completed in August 2005 and meant that the company will now have closer business sales as those of Nike in Northern America. This trend started with the top piece, but after shrinking the top so much that it barely covers the nipples, swimsuit manufacturers have moved on to reducing the size of the bottom piece. In August 2005, adidas declared its intention to buy Anglo-American rival Reebok for US$ 3.8 billion. Recently bikinis have been getting smaller. Also in 2005, on May 2, adidas told the public that they sold their partner company Salomon Group for 485 mn Euros to Amer Sports of Finland. The lower part of the bikini was further reduced in size in the 1970s to the Brazilian thong, where the back of the suit is so thin that it disappears into the buttocks. It currently retails for $250 (USD).

A string bikini is a more revealing alternative style where both top and bottom are reduced to triangles of cloth connected by strings. The shoe requires a small, user replaceable battery that lasts for approximately 100 hours of running. The tankini is a swimsuit combining a tank top and a bikini bottom. Dubbed by the company "The World's First Intelligent Shoe" it features a microprocessor capable of performing 5 million calculations per second that automatically adjusts the shoe's level of cushioning to suit its environment. The term was coined by Rudi Gernreich. In 2005, adidas introduced the adidas 1, the first ever production shoe to utilize a microprocessor. Where monokinis are in use, the word bikini may jokingly refer to a two-piece outfit consisting of a monokini and a sun hat. [2] [3].

In recent years, the term monokini has come into use for topless bathing by women: where the bikini has two parts, the monokini is the lower part. The court ruled that despite the simplicity of the mark, Fitness World's use was infringing because the public could establish a link between that use and adidas' mark. The term two-piece is considered a neutral alternative. In 2003, adidas filed a lawsuit in British court challenging Fitness World Trading's use of a two-stripe motif similar to adidas' three stripes. People who are familiar with the history of Bikini Atoll—particularly opponents of nuclear proliferation—may find the etymology and use of the word "bikini" for a garment as inappropriate, as its tongue-in-cheek "explosive" reputation effectively reduces the significance of a serious historic humanitarian crisis—one that still influences the politics of the Marshall Islands—to a mere popular culture sex symbol in the minds of most people. [1]. Finally the bikini caught on, and by 1963, the movie Beach Party, starring Annette Funicello (emphatically not in a bikini, by mentor Walt Disney's personal request) and Frankie Avalon, led a wave of films that made the bikini a pop-culture symbol. adidas withdrew the suit, and the two groups established guidelines as to what three-stripe designs would be considered uses of the adidas trademark.

In 1957, however, Brigitte Bardot's bikini in And God Created Woman created a market for the swimwear in the US, and in 1960, Brian Hyland's pop song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" inspired a bikini-buying spree. In 1998, adidas sued the NCAA over their rules limiting the size and number of commercial logos on team uniforms and apparel. In 1951 bikinis were banned from the Miss World Contest. In 1997, adidas AG acquired the Salomon Group, and its corporate name was changed to adidas-Salomon AG. It took fifteen years for the bikini to be accepted in the United States. In 2005, French courts awarded Tapie a 135 million euro compensation (about 886 million francs). He ended up hiring Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, as his model. He spent 6 months in La Santé prison in Paris in 1997 after being sentenced to 18.

Reard split the "atome" even smaller, but could not find a model who would dare to wear his design. He was the object of several lawsuits, notably related to match fixing at the football club. Reard's suit was a refinement of the work of Jacques Heim who, two months earlier, had introduced the "Atome" (named for its size) and advertised it as the world's "smallest bathing suit". Tapie went bankrupt himself in 1994. The modern bikini was invented by engineer Louis Reard in Paris in 1946 (introduced on July 5), and named after Bikini Atoll, the site of nuclear weapon tests in the Marshall Islands, on the reasoning that the burst of excitement it would cause would be like the atomic bomb. He is also the president of the Olympique de Marseille football team, to which Tapie is closely linked. . Robert Louis-Dreyfus became the new CEO of the company.

Two-piece garments worn by women for athletic purposes have been observed on Greek urns and paintings, dated as early as 1400 BC. Forgetting why the bank actually bought adidas, Tapie later sued the bank, because he felt spoiled by the indirect sale. The shapes of both parts of a bikini closely resemble women's underwear, and the lower part of a bikini can therefore range from the more revealing thong or g-string to briefs and the more modest square-cut shorts. In February 1993, Crédit Lyonnais sold adidas to Robert Louis-Dreyfus, a friend of Bernard Tapie (and cousin of Julia Louis-Dreyfus from the Seinfeld TV series), for a much higher amount of money than what Tapie owed, 4.485 billion francs rather than 2.85 billion. A bikini or two-piece is a type of women's bathing suit, characterized by two separate parts—one covering the breasts, the other the groin (and optionally the buttocks), leaving an uncovered area between the two garments. Apparently, the state-owned bank had tried to get Tapie out of dire financial straits as a personal favour to Tapie, reportedly because Tapie was a minister of Urban Affairs (ministre de la Ville) in the French government at the time. He mandated the Crédit Lyonnais bank to sell adidas, and the bank subsequently converted the outstanding debt owed into equity of the enterprise, which was unusual for then-current French banking practice.

In 1992, Tapie was unable to pay the interest from his loan. He also hired Madonna for promotion. Tapie decided to move production offshore to Asia. Tapie was at the time a famous specialist of rescuing bankrupt companies, a business on which he built his fortune.

After a period of serious trouble following the death of Adolf Dassler's son Horst Dassler in 1987, the company was bought in 1990 by Bernard Tapie, for 1.6 billion French francs ($320 million), which Tapie borrowed. The history of the company as presented by its official web site is incomplete, perhaps because it is indirectly linked to financial scandals. The adidas sneaker was popularized by the Run DMC song "My adidas" and became a huge fashion trend. In the 1980s, adidas sneakers became popular amongst teenagers and young men.

This will propel adidas to the number two spot in terms of foot apparel market behind Nike. The acquisition would increase its market share in North America and allow it to further compete with Nike. In August 2005, the company announced that it had made a deal to acquire rival Reebok for $3.8 billion. The chief competitors of adidas are PUMA and Nike.

. Rudolf Dassler, Adi's brother, founded a rival company, PUMA. The company's clothing and shoe designs typically include three parallel stripes of the same color, and the same motif is incorporated into adidas' official logos. It registered as adidas AG on 18 August 1949.

adidas was named after its founder, Adolf (Adi) Dassler, who started producing shoes in the 1920s in Herzogenaurach near Nuremberg. adidas is a German sports apparel manufacturer, part of the adidas-Salomon corporation. His self-admitted secret was simply copying what Nike and Reebok did. He has been highly successful with managing the company until 2001.

CEO (1993-2001): Robert Louis-Dreyfus.