If you, like me, thought Adidas stood for "All Day I Dream About Soccer," you're wrong. It turns out the athletics-apparel brand is named after its founder, Adolf Dassler, who started making sport shoes when he came back from serving in World War I, according to the LA Times. The name combines his nickname, Adi, and the first three letters of his last name.
J. Crew's name set it up to compete with Ralph Lauren's Polo line.
According to Forbes, "The name Crew was picked to compete with Ralph Lauren’s Polo label and [founder Arthur] Cinader added the J because he thought it added [cachet]."
Makes sense. Polo and crew are both pretty preppy sports.
