ADIDAS HQ WITH THE BLACK FERNS

New Zealand Rugby and Adidas are celebrating 25 years together, so Rugby World made the trip to Germany to take a peek behind the curtain

- JOSH GRAHAM

THE WILLINGNESS of the second biggest sports manufacturer in the world to open their doors wide to the Black Ferns and give them the VIP treatment is a good indicator of how women’s rugby has grown. The fact Adidas also let Rugby World come along for the ride was just an added bonus. We made the trip to Adidas’ global headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany to not only have a nosy around the campus and archive, but to find out what the manufacturer does for its partners and the technology it is pushing to find that sporting edge.

The taxi ride over from our hotel in Nuremberg, the nearest city and airport, took around 20 minutes. The grand structures and entrances are quite a sight when you arrive, they do call it the Disneyland of Adidas after all. But what really grabbed our attention was the walkway down to the main building adorned with the iconic three-stripes logo.

Adidas’ football boots have been worn by the likes of Lionel Messi, David Beckham and Jude Bellingham. NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl champion with Kansas City Chiefs, is another high-profile athlete of theirs and many famous names from down the years have their footprints on the floor.

The name that stands out for us, of course, is the late, great Jonah Lomu. After seeing Lomu's hefty size-13 footprints outside, we made our way in and navigated the 346-acre site - which is reminiscent of a plush uni campus.

We then got to see the real deal with a pair of original Lomu Adidas boots, signed by the man himself, and stored safely in the Adidas archive/mini-museum on site.

Refreshingly, the archive is not open to the public and therefore not yet monetised to within an inch of its life like most attractions.