Adidas Adilette

Affectionately dubbed by the Süddeutsche as "the guilty pleasure of the masses," the Adilette was invented by Adi Dassler in 1963 for a reason. He owed it to athletes who wanted a shoe they could wear not only in the locker room but also in the shower. Thus, Dassler created the slide sandal made of blue rubber, featuring a contoured footbed and a padded strap. Side suction cups provided the necessary grip, along with the iconic three white stripes. At that 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 from there to campgrounds, the streets of small German towns, and finally to the sidewalk in front of the drinking hall in Kohlhaus, Fulda. The Adilette became intertwined with us Germans and tarnished our reputation. It led our neighbors to believe that we are perpetually on vacation, only getting off the couch to grab chips. However, it is now 2011, and we believe that it has overcome the style crisis.