Affectionately dubbed by the Süddeutsche as "the guilty pleasure of the masses," the Adilette was invented by Adi Dassler in 1963 for a reason. He owed it to the athletes, who wanted a shoe they could wear in the locker room and also in the shower. Thus, Dassler created the slide sandal 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 slide 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 eventually 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 that we are perpetually on vacation, only getting off the couch to grab some chips. However, it is now 2011, and we believe that it has mastered the style crisis.