Going to the heart and sole of Adidas Village

It was a trip promising a lot of thrills. Big thrills. Cheap thrills. How would you like to fly 17 hours via Philippine Airlines from Manila to visit the Adidas Village in Portland, Oregon? And another six hours to go to Orlando, Florida to interview Tracy McGrady and watch an NBA basketball game?

Were they kidding? The moment Adidas Philippines faxed the invite to us, our group of lifestyle writers and sports columnists was already packing the most comfy rubber shoes and the warmest jackets we could grab.

For true enough, Portland gave us a cold and really chilly welcome. Imagine those white, wintry scenes in Christmas cards and you get the picture. Brrr.

But, no, make that a very cool welcome. We were fetched at the Portland International Airport by a black stretch limo, complete with a sleek bar and mini strobe lights constantly changing colors on the ceiling. Why, we felt like rock stars. Imagine those really l-o-n-g limos that deposit stars like Gwyneth Paltrow or Brad Pitt on the Red Carpet for the Oscar Awards and you get the picture. Cheap thrill number one!

The limo could probably accommodate 20 if no one tried to rock and roll inside, but even if we were only about 10 in our group, it seemed crowded, what with our thick jackets.

"Please, don’t dare fart inside the limo now," warned STAR sports columnist Bill Velasco, decidedly the comedian in our media group.

Of course, nobody did, and so we happily proceeded to the Adidas Village to meet up with other media people from Taiwan, Korea and HongKong.

Contrary to what we had envisioned in our Coca-colonized minds, Adidas Village was not a theme park somewhat like those you find in Disneyland or Universal Studios. No, this is not a playground for sportsfreaks where you can have virtual or high-tech one-on-ones with NBA hotshots like Tracy McGrady. No picture-pretty mascots here, nor visions of Adidas stars like Anna Kournikova sexily sashaying in her signature tight miniskirt. There goes a cheap thrill.

Adidas Village is actually a cluster of five colorful buildings in an 11-acre site where the Bess Kaiser Hospital once stood. Wisely redesigned by BOORA Architects (for the shell) and Michael Roberts of LRS Architects (for the interiors), Adidas Village is a $100 Million project that is a showcase of energy efficiency, environmental responsibility and resource efficiency. (Read: Carbon monoxide sensors adjust garage ventilation. Low toxic paint and flooring. Recycling of construction waste. And so many other features enabling use of 20.5 percent less energy).

The five buildings are named after Olympic sites and come in five Olympic colors. So there’s Athens 1896 (green), Mexico 1968 (black), Rome 1960 (yellow), Tokyo 1964 (blue) and Chamonix 1924 (red). The buildings are intertwined with their surroundings in the residential neighborhood, which has a large public park open to neighbors. This park includes tennis courts and a soccer field using fake grass and fake dirt. So everything is neat and clean.

What is so cool about this antiseptic-looking cluster of buildings is its simple, modern interiors with that neat, industrial look. This stylish high-functioning work environment accommodates a thousand Adidas employes, mostly in their 20’s and 30’s. With their sporty outfits, you’d think they simply jogged to work. Cool. It simply outdoes the Casual Fridays dictum. Adidas is so in tune with the times — and with the young.

A tour of the buildings showed us production stages in making those Adidas bestsellers. But sorry guys, this is not exactly where the Adidas shoes are made. Like most other global brands, Adidas now relies on the supremacy and skill of China in the manufacture of its wares. So Adidas Village is where brilliant minds converge to produce the final prototypes of Adidas.

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America is the place in the world where most basketball wares are consumed.

"Seventy-five to 80 percent of basketball business is done here in the US," explains David Bond, head of Adidas’ Basketball US Sports.

"Asia is the second largest, bigger than Europe, and it’s the fastest-growing basketball market," Bond adds.

And hear this: "Adidas Basketball is now the fastest-growing company in the planet," he declares.

"In 2001, we were up 32 percent; in 2002, we were up 45 percent and largely fueled by T-Mac 2’s great success.

Bond asserts: "Our goals as a company are pretty simple: We’re gonna be Number One."

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Fact is, Adidas was Number One in the 60s, 70s and 80s. When Adidas was founded by a German shoemaker name Adi Dassler, he envisioned it to be Number One in sports shoes.

Adidas was conceived in 1919 in Herzogenaurach, a town in Germany where Christoph Dassler, a skilled shoe factory worker, trained his four children in the art and craft of shoemaking.

After World War I, his son Adi Dassler, following his intuition, gathered war surplus materials and converted the family washroom into a shoe factory.

Adi Dassler was an athlete himself. He loved soccer, ice hockey, skiing and gymnastics. It was he who predicted that jogging would be a national pastime. Knowing the demands of athletes, Adi was able to design shoes that would help win games.

In 1924, Adi and his brother Rudolf established the Dassler Sports Shoe Factory, specializing in running shoes, football boots and tennis shoes.

Adi took a two-year course at a shoe institute in Pirmasens, while Rudolf took charge of sales. Adi mastered the role of human anatomy and orthopedics in shoe design. "I’m going to make the lightest running shoe the world has ever seen. Then we’ll really hit it big." Adi’s words were no empty boasts. In 1935, Jesse Owens wore Adi’s shoes and scored victory in the Olympics, followed by more sports superstars breaking Olympic records.

In 1949, the two brothers decided to form their own companies. Adi formed Adidas and Rudolf started Puma.

Soon, Adi was hailed as "the nation’s greatest shoemaker." Good news travels fast in the sporting world, and soon, Adidas became the choice of athletes in international Olympic events. The three stripes lorded it over the shoe industry, with plants in Germany, France, Canada and Austria producing 35,000 pairs daily. Adidas was tops in 120 countries.

Fast forward to the 1990s. After Adi’s death, new brands rose and sports shoemaking became a fiercely competitive field.

"Adidas is to sports what Rolls Royce is to driving," declared Adidas boss Robert Louis Dreyfus.

That declaration must have echoed loud and clear from the factories in Herzogenaurach in Germany to the modern offices in Portland, Oregon.

Will the three stripes soon overtake the swoosh?

Adidas is ready to stun the sporting world. That is what you feel as you talk to the forward-thinking Adidas people. For them, anything is possible. "Tell us what you have in mind and we’ll make it happen," they tell their designers.

Aside from Tracy McGrady, Adidas will be signing up more stars, but only superstars.

"Superstars are athletes who are very talented, but their talent is exceeded by their character. A superstar should be a great player, and an even greater person. We want athletes surely to make baskets but also want to make a difference in the world. And to steal a line from Spiderman, we want him to recognize that with great power comes great responsibility. And this is how we determine who the next elite superstars are."

In the Philippines, Adidas has gathered the best of basketball superstars in its roster. Adidas Philippines president John Alonte is an Atenean, and his marketing director Angelica Suiza is a La Sallite, but together the two topnotch wizards are transcending their colors to reach Adidas’ goal. They are likewise conquering the mass market through their Streetball Basketball program.

Truth is, Adidas has captured the AB fashion market through its Originals and apparel line which are selling like hotcakes in Adidas shops, particularly those in Greenbelt 3 and Edsa Shangri-La Mall. A few Pinoy fashionistas have been lucky enough to get Yohjis.

What about an Adidas shoe designed by Filipino designers like Inno Sotto or Joe Salazar? Or a signature shoe inspired by BJ Manalo or Enrico Villanueva?

Now that would really be a big thrill.