Adidas Logo: Old and New Compared

What the old and new Adidas logos actually are

Adidas does not rest on one retired mark and one replacement. The brand is identified by three parallel stripes, and those stripes appear in several official symbols plus a lowercase wordmark. The comparison people usually mean is the Trefoil against the later three-bar performance mark, with the 1990s mountain symbol as a third, older performance version.

Scope matters before any redesign judgment. The Trefoil is the heritage and Originals symbol: a three-leaf form with three stripes cutting through it. The mountain mark is three bars stacked into an upward peak and belongs to an earlier performance era. The current primary symbol is three slanted bars in a compact triangle, often called the Badge of Sport in brand materials. The logotype is the word adidas drawn in lowercase letters and can sit with any of those symbols or stand alone. Calling one of these the old logo and another the new logo is only accurate once you name which pair you mean.

How the main marks compare

Mark	What you see	Typical role
Trefoil	Three-leaf clover silhouette; three stripes run across the leaves	Heritage, lifestyle, Originals
Mountain	Three bars stacked into a triangle that reads as a peak	Older performance identity
Three bars	Three equal-weight slanted bars in a tight triangle	Current performance and corporate symbol
Wordmark	Lowercase adidas in a geometric sans-serif	Name lockup, used with a symbol or on its own

Observable design differences

The Trefoil is the most pictorial of the set. Its outline is a symmetrical three-leaf plant form. Three parallel bands slice through that outline on a diagonal, so the stripes and the leaves share one shape rather than sitting as a separate icon above a name. At a glance it feels ornamental and historic. It also carries more small indentations along the leaf edges, which makes it denser at tiny sizes than the later bar marks.

The mountain mark is fully geometric. Three trapezoid or parallelogram bars stack so their outer edges form a triangle pointing up. The top of the stack reads as a peak; the gaps between bars stay even. Nothing in the drawing is leaf-like. The idea that the peak stands for a challenge an athlete climbs is a brand-narrative reading, not something the geometry states on its own.

The three-bar symbol keeps the same three-stripe idea and strips away the peak and the foliage. The bars are similar in weight, slanted, and packed into a compact triangle that usually reads as moving left to right. Negative space between the bars is as important as the bars themselves: even gaps, aligned ends, and a clean triangular envelope. Compared with the Trefoil it is more abstract, more athletic in tone, and simpler to reproduce at small sizes or in a single colour.

The wordmark is the company name, not a picture of stripes. It is set in all-lowercase letters in a geometric sans-serif, with tight spacing and distinctive a and d forms. In many lockups the symbol sits above or to the side of this lettering. A file that shows only adidas in that lettering is still an Adidas logo treatment; it is the logotype, not a missing icon.

Colour is usually black, white, or a one-colour reversal on a dark field. Historical uses have included other brand colours, including blue. Without the current brand-guideline sheet in hand, treat colour as an application choice rather than a fixed proof of which generation you have. Stripe count, silhouette, and the relationship between symbol and wordmark are more reliable identifiers than fill colour.

What this means for vector logo work

If you are matching, redrawing, or choosing an Adidas mark as a vector asset, the practical next step is to identify the silhouette first, then the intended product line or era. The Trefoil and the three-bar symbol are not interchangeable. Swapping them changes the identity from heritage and Originals to current performance and corporate use. The mountain mark is a third, older performance drawing and should not be treated as a slightly stretched version of the current three bars.

• Match the mark to the line it belongs to: Trefoil for Originals and heritage, three bars for current performance and corporate use, mountain for older performance material.
• Keep three stripes, even gaps, and the original silhouette. Do not add a fourth bar, round the Trefoil into a circle, or turn the three bars into a peak unless you are deliberately drawing the mountain mark.
• Treat a vector file as a drawing format only. An .svg, .ai, or .eps extension does not prove official geometry and does not grant permission to use the Adidas name or symbols.
• Prefer a clean path version of the correct mark over tracing a compressed photo. Raster edges will invent curves and gap widths that the original geometry does not have.
• Preserve clear space around the symbol and wordmark. Crowding the Trefoil’s leaf edges or clipping the three-bar triangle is a common way lockups go wrong.

Where the public record is thin

Exact launch years, designer credits, and official meaning statements for each mark are documented brand-history claims. They are widely repeated, but this comparison does not rely on a primary Adidas guideline or archive citation, so those dates and attributions should be checked against original brand materials before you treat them as settled. Current spacing, minimum size, and colour values are likewise specified in brand guidelines that are not supplied here.

There is also no single public “new logo” that retired every earlier mark. Adidas still uses more than one symbol on purpose. If your question is which file to place in a layout, identify the silhouette and the product context. If your question is whether a redesign succeeded, say which two marks you are scoring. If your question is whether you may use the logo, that is a licensing question; availability of a vector file is not an answer.