Arena is an Italian competitive swimwear brand created in 1973 by Horst Dassler, son of Adidas founder Adolf Dassler and then president of Adidas France. The brand was inspired by Mark Spitz’s seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, which Dassler witnessed from the pool deck. Arena launched its first competition swimwear line, Skinfit, in 1973 and was officially presented at the 1974 European Aquatics Championships in Vienna.[1]
Design and History
The Arena logo has been composed of three diamonds since the brand’s inception in 1973.[2] The mark was created as a tribute to Adidas’s three-stripe logo, with Arena adopting three vertically stacked diamonds in orange as its motif.[3] Initially, the logo appeared only on clothing’s inner label without the brand name; it was later worn by ambassadors Mark Spitz and Shane Gould on their swimsuits.[3]
The logo has undergone several changes over the years. The diamonds were first rearranged into a more compact visual, with two horizontally aligned diamonds set slightly above a third diamond nestled between them. In the most recent variation, the diamonds are flattened and rounded, arranged to resemble a blue wave. Although later recoloured in shades of grey and black, the mark remains a globally recognizable symbol of the brand.[3]
In 2015, Arena launched a rebranding project to redefine its corporate identity around its “water instinct” concept. The undertaking, which included a restyling of the three-diamond logo along with reshaping the corporate identity, was unveiled in 2016 in concert with the company’s build-up to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The branding agency FutureBrand was outsourced for the rebranding initiative.[4]
Meaning and Symbolism
The three diamonds in the Arena logo carry documented symbolic meaning. The word diamond derives from the Greek “adamas,” which means invincible, and in popular tradition, three diamonds together represent the past, present and future.[2] The diamond is described as the strongest, most resilient gem on earth.[2]
The brand name itself references an arena like that of Rome’s Colosseum, a setting that hosted gladiator fights and sporting competitions. Given its competitive connotations and historical origins, the name was chosen for an emerging brand looking to catch the public’s eye in the most important sporting venues in the world.[3]
For the brand’s 50th anniversary in 2023, Arena released a capsule collection designed around a reinterpretation of the first logo, which consisted of three orange diamonds. The collection’s palette used gold to represent achievements over the years, orange for the brand’s iconic legacy, and black for strength and timeless style.[5]
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