Adidas – Made For Beijing

Matt Moore from IMG gives a guided tour of the Adidas Pavilion – the sportswear brand’s showcase area on the Olympic Green in Beijing.

Adidas is the official sponsorship partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee and the Chinese Olympic Team as well as a Beijing 2008 Olympic Partner. The Adidas showcase area on the Olympic Green, tells the story of Adidas’ contributions to the Olympic Games and to the athletes competing through the years.

Entering the Adidas showcase you are greeted by a giant China team-suit. The final design of the presentation suit originated from a global contest having the Beijing 2008 look of the Games lucky cloud pattern as part of the main inspiration. This special uniform will be worn proudly as the official team suit for team China.

As you walk through the first corridor – you hear the sounds of an athletes beating heart as you enter the stadium followed by the roar of the crowd, as you turn the final bend you come to a section depicting a timeline of Adidas’ involvement in the Olympics.

In which Adidas have chosen to focus on their heritage with the Olympic Games featuring a number of great Adidas facts and figures, which I’ve highlighted below; Adidas’ heritage with the Games dates as far back as the 1920’s when Adi Dassler shoes made their debut at the 1928 Amsterdam Games with immediate success – German Lina Radke winning Gold in the first ever women’s 800m race in a world record time. In 1936 Jesse Owens claims 4 Gold Medals in Adidas shoes that boasted specially positioned spikes and a low cut upper.

By 1940 Adidas was registered as a brand with the three stripes and Emil Zatopek wins Gold and Silver in the 10 and 5k respectively in custom made lightweight Adidas shoes. At the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome 75% of all track and field athletes relied on Adidas shoes.

At the following Games in Tokyo in 1964 this had risen to 80% with 99 medallists; many using the lightest track shoe ever made – the Tokyo 64 – weighing just 135 grams per shoe. In 1968 Dick Fosbury, revolutionised high jump with his innovative technique dubbed the “Fosbury Flop” leaping backwards over the bar and going over shoulders first with his Adidas spikes following last.1976 saw the introduction of the “Adistar 2000” with spikes customisable for the surface and the athlete’s preference – propelling Cuban Alberto Juantorena to Gold in the 400m and 800m at the same Olympic Games – the first time this has been achieved in history.

Interestingly the stories in the timeline between 1976 and 1996 don’t quite seem to live up to the high standards of some of the earlier ones – is this the effect of Nike entering the field of play?

But by 2000 Adidas are back as Australia hosts the Olympics – local favourite Ian Thorpe wins 2 gold medals and sets 2 world records in the space of one hour, wearing the specially designed Adidas full body suit… which apparently takes 40 mins to put on!

2004 sees the Olympic Games return to the place of their birth; Athens, Greece. Half the athletes compete in Adidas – including current women’s pole vault world record holder and Beijing favourite Yelena Isinbayeva.

Which brings us nicely to Beijing 2008… As you ascend the stairs you are greeted by a huge image of Chinese athletes decked in Adidas as well as mannequins wearing the uniforms of all the other national teams Adidas supply. With over 3000 Adidas athletes competing at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Adidas has created a dedicated range of apparel, footwear and hardware products called “Made for Beijing”.

The Made for Beijing product range is all about helping athletes achieve their impossibles. All products feature the latest Adidas technologies such as Formotion, Climacool, and Adidas Techfit Powerweb. Made for Beijing products Adidas claim to offer the best fit and comfort to ensure athletes perform better and look amazing in a classic athletic design. But Adidas are keen to point out they will not only be supporting the athletes but also the BOCOG staff, volunteers and technical officials.

The penultimate exhibit focuses on 3 Adidas athletes expected to do well at this Games; Images of Yelena Isinbayeva, Tyson Gay and Jeremy Wariner stand alongside a track with the impossible is nothing slogan at the end.

These 3 athletes have all had custom designed shoes (and sunglasses in Wariner’s case!) made for Beijing. Yelena’s shoes feature dolphins and diamonds – two of her favourite things; Tyson’s are inspired by Jesse Owens; while Wariner has asked that the design for his shoes for the final be held back until he reaches the event. If he does, look to his feet, they are sure to be special…

As you make you way out the building down the stairs to a 3 min film featuring clips from the Adidas “impossible is nothing” ad campaign and Olympic footage of famous Adidas athlete performances is shown on a giant spiral LCD screen. Pretty inspirational stuff… but so ends the tour – however as it says in the video “the end of every journey inspires the beginning of another…”