Bauhaus Dessau × Adidas

On Sunday, 17 May 2026, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation invites you to International Museum Day, featuring guided tours, workshops and free admission to the Bauhaus Museum Dessau. The highlight of the day will be the jubilee raffle in support of the inclusive outreach and education programme “Neue Verbindungen” (New Connections), that is highlighting a key objective of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation: to enable greater participation and accessibility in cultural activities.

A total of 300 raffle tickets, each costing 50 euros, are available.

Prizes are:
• 33 Adidas × Bauhaus studio coats
• 66 Adidas × Bauhaus tracksuits
• 66 Adidas × Bauhaus football kits
• 60 pairs of tickets for access to
• 75 collection catalogues

Prizes are limited and available in this form only via the raffle. Sizes and items cannot be exchanged; collection is by in-person-collection only.

By purchasing a ticket, visitors support the new outreach programme that seeks better accessibilty to the Bauhaus’s cultural programme: in the centenary exhibition Glass | Concrete | Metal  in the Bauhaus building exhibition spaces, artists and designers act as special facilitators, inviting visitors to experiment and come into conversation. For this tactile tours and accessible audio formats have been newly developed in consultation with experts and are intended to make the visit more enjoyable, particularly for people with disabilities.

This fashion edition reflects elements of modernism in a unique way: stylistic elements from sports and youth culture are combined with a typical piece of 20th-century workwear.

The collection comprises of five pieces:
tracksuit top and bottoms, a football shirt and shorts, and a studio coat referencing everyday life at an art academy in the early 20th century.

The design concept for the centenary edition makes clear: the history of the Bauhaus in Dessau did not end with its closure by the National Socialists in 1932 (and in Berlin in 1933). No longer merely an art college, but a centre for research and culture, the rather late reconstruction and reopening of the Bauhaus Building in 1976 marked the beginning of an important period for the Bauhaus Dessau in East-Germany. The 1990s, with the Bauhaus Dessau becoming a foundation in 1994, also represent a fruitful era characterised by the spirit of optimism in the post-reunification period.

Thus, the years 1976 and 1994 serve as historical markers literally woven into the design, illustrating the GDR and history of the two Germanys as part of the Bauhaus’s history after 1933. These temporal reference points are complemented by a reference to fashion-history and to the Bauhaus’s beginnings in the Weimar Republic.

The design was developed by Oliver Klimpel, Head of the Curatorial Workshop at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, in collaboration with the Adidas Originals team.

Tracksuit

It wasn’t just West-German athletes who were kitted out by the sportswear manufacturer from Herzogenaurach. Surprisingly, by the time the Bauhaus reopened its doors in 1976, East German athletes were also competing in international competitions and the Olympic Games wearing Adidas jerseys and tracksuits. A vibrant dark blue, taken from an architectural detail in the foyer of the 1926 Bauhaus building, replaces the dark blue of the Eastgerman Adidas tracksuits in the current centenary edition. The cut of the jacket features expressive, angular shapes,in the same colour in so-called panelling on front and back. These are a reference to Adidas jerseys from the 1990s; a period that was so (trans)formative for both the reunified Germany and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.

Jersey and shorts

These shapes are also mirrored in the cut of tops and shorts in the football kits. These, too, draw on the colours of the Bauhaus building. However, it is an off-white and a lemon yellow – rather than the primary colours often mistakenly interpreted as ‘typically Bauhaus’ – that highlight the rich palette of Bauhaus design. Applied to the front of the shirt is the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation’s lettering in blue, in ‘high-density rubber print’. This typography also appears in a smaller form on all other garments, embroidered in 3D, alongside the Adidas trefoil.

A distinctive feature of the jerseys is the unique jacquard pattern woven into the off-white and pale yellow fabric (100% recycled polyester). Jacquard patterns were also woven in the weaving workshop at the historic Bauhaus. The pattern used on the jersey is based on a sketch by Bauhaus student Lena Meyer-Bergner. She had studied under the only female Bauhaus master, Gunta Stölzl, and learnt about the structural systems and composition of textiles, as well as their representation, through pattern exercises. The pattern on the garments thus incorporates a graphic detail from Bauhaus teaching dating from 1927. The Jacquard pattern is also found in the light yellow inner lining of the track suit jacket.

Studio coat

The logos of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and Adidas are featured in 3D embroidery on the front oft he most unusual garment in the edition, the studio coat or workshop smock. Here, however, these are applied tone-on-tone on a white background, just as the three stripes are also subtly integrated. The coat not only recalls the use of studio coats at institutions such as the Bauhaus. It also embodies the institution’s commitment to research and science-like exploration of essential characteristics, internal structures and functions of materials and substances: a garment understood at the time as funtional workwear rather than formal attire, in which artistic experiments could be undertaken in almost laboratory-like conditions, in the spaces of the workshop wing of the famous Bauhaus building.