Diving into the historic Italian brand “Diadora”.

The Beginnings of Diadora

Diadora is an Italian brand known for its sportswear and footwear. Founded by Marcello Danielli in the region of Veneto in 1948, Diadora started out solely working on work and hiking boots. It was the 1960s that found Diadora morphing into the soon-to-be iconic brand when they made the change to sports shoes.

1970’s: The First Step

The Italian brand made a ginormous leap in the industry as they started to pair up with sport’s most famous athletes and teams, dressing them for the big stage. Diadora were one of the first companies to create meaningful relationships with players themselves, instead of only the team as a whole. Their innovative, comfortable, and stylish wear made waves in the sports industry, as seen by being the first brand to create tennis shoes with a leather upper, substituting the original fabric upper. Although Diadora’s innovative shoe and partnership with Martin Mulligan would see the brand having a large increase in popularity, it was not until 1976 when they partnered with Bjorn Borg, that Diadora would truly reach premier status.

Styling Borg and Entering The World of Football

In 1976, Bjorn Borg, who is undeniably considered one of the best tennis players of all time, had struck up a partnership with Diadora. Not only was he athletic royalty, but his iconic style went hand-in-hand with this status. No one had accumulated such an intense following as Borg had, with his style becoming the highlight of casual fashion in the 80s, and his Diadora sneakers shining in the limelight.

The FIFA World Cup of 1978 brought Diadora’s first Football collaboration, as they partnered with Italian player Roberto Bettega. After dipping its toes into the world of football, the Veneto brand started figuring out ways to stylize football cleats and landed on attaching a decorative colored material inside the uppers of the cleat. They would continue to experiment with innovative ways to design cleats as well as diving into a multitude of other sports. From 1986 to 1994, Diadora would create the kits for the Italian National Football Team. They would end up creating some of Gli Azzuri’s most iconic kits, such as the 1994 World Cup kit, as well as partnering with some of the most legendary players in the world of football such as Roberto Baggio. Baggio, also known as Il Divino Codino, brought further success to Diadora as he created history on the pitch, scoring magnificent goals with his memorable Diadora cleats. The star forward and the brand would have a strong relationship throughout his career. Diadora would continue to pair up with prolific players like Antonio Cassano, Roy Keane, and Francesco Totti.

The Legacy

Over the years, Diadora has ventured into a vast array of sports such as Formula 1; where they created the first ever approved fireproof footwear in racing, cycling; where they created state-of-the-art soles with different hardnesses and an adjustable cleat, basketball, volleyball, boxing and many more. Diadora has also created one of the first lines of Base Layer sportswear, which is a technology in their clothing that helps regulate a person’s temperature in different conditions. Diadora was, and will forever be known as one of sports and Italy’s most iconic brands, as they helped pave the way for the relationship between sports and brands, helped innovate athletic footwear, assisted the popularity of Italian style, and created some of the most mesmerizing professional sportswear throughout the years.