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 bath slipper 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 anticipated that the Adidas sandal 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 even today that we are perpetually on vacation, only moving from the couch to grab chips. But now we are in 2011, and we believe that it has mastered the style crisis.