Adidas Adilette

Affectionately dubbed by the Süddeutsche as "the tacky slipper without guilt," Adi Dassler invented the Adilette in 1963 for a reason. He owed it to athletes who wanted a shoe they could wear in the shower after changing. Thus, Dassler created the slide made of blue rubber with a contoured footbed and padded strap. Side suction cups provided the necessary grip, along with the iconic three white stripes. At the time, Dassler could not have imagined that the Adidas slide would quickly leave the sacred spaces of Olympians and conquer the sauna landscapes of ordinary citizens. It made its way to campsites, the streets of small German towns, and finally to the sidewalk in front of the drinking hall at Kohlhaus in Fulda. The Adilette merged with us Germans and tarnished our reputation. It led our neighbors to believe that we are always on vacation, only getting off the couch to grab chips. However, we are now in 2011 and believe that it has mastered the style crisis.