I’ve had plenty of “pinch-me” moments since starting to work in golf. I’ve interviewed famous athletes, traveled to top-100 golf courses and vacation destinations galore. And how could I forget the mountain of golf shoes I’ve compiled in the process?
But when it comes to that “wow” factor, those things pale in comparison to my time spent recently inside the adidas Archive. Located at adidas HQ in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the Archive isn’t open to the public, and rarely do people other than select employees get to venture down its vast corridors of relics.
Among 40,000-plus items ranging from the first shoe created by founder Adi Dassler to game-used World Cup soccer balls, it was impressed upon me again and again how dedicated, dare I say obsessed, adidas is with performance.
As golfers, we’re concerned with getting better and gaining an advantage. My time spent in the adidas Archive further cemented the idea that perhaps the world’s most iconic sports brand is, indeed, all about performance.
Because I was privileged to experience something like this that very few people ever will, I’d be remiss not to share the three things I learned about adidas’s heritage and how it applies to us today.
