Yahoo News 'It's like barm cake vs bap': We asked Adidas' biggest fans how they pronounce iconic brand
What do Adidas, Ikea, Nike and Skoda all have in common?
Answer: They split the population depending on how they're pronounced. However, the likes of Ikea and Skoda are pronounced incorrectly whereas with well-known trainer brands such as Adidas and Nike there isn't a global 'accepted' pronunciation.
As dozens of hardcore Adidas fans have descended on Darwen in recent weeks to visit the Spezial range exhibition, created by home-grown talent Gary Aspden, even they are segregated into two camps: those who say Adidas as it's spelled and those who say Adeedus.
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On Friday (May 24) hardcore fans queued up in Market Street in Darwen where an exhibition is being hosted to celebrate 10 years of Gary's Spezial range. The queue was equally split between those who pronounced Adidas one way, and those who used the alternative pronunciation.
Jack, 23, from Halifax, was one of those at the front of the queue in order to bag himself one of just 100 pairs of limited edition Blackburn (DECADE) Adidas trainers sold at the Darwen exhibition on Friday.
"It's like barm cake vs bap," he said. "People just say it differently; there's not a right or wrong way."
What is usually considered to be the German brand's correct pronunciation is most used on the continent - with a shorter vowel sound in the middle. The name comes from the nickname of its founder, Adolf Dassler.
He was known by pals as 'Adi', and combined with a shortened version of his surname, they landed on Adidas.
Dassler started the brand in his mother's house in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria. He had returned home from WWI, and began making sports shoes in her scullery in 1924. It is now the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and has legions of dedicated fans across the work - including those in Darwen last week.
LancsLive asked each of the first people in the queue how they say Adidas. The camp was roughly split in half.
Watch our video to see the varying pronunciations above.
