The clothes on the runway of Adidas Originals' packed opening party looked straight out of an après-ski party in the Swiss Alps, circa 1973. That in itself was not surprising: the striped sweaters, puffy primary-hued parkas, and Moon Boots-real Moon Boots!-are reissues of pieces the sportswear brand created with skier-designer Carlo Gruber 30-odd years ago.

What was surreal was that the models weren't selling these looks for the slopes; instead, they were krumping to the sounds of a turntablist. Welcome to a world where everything old is cool again; where yesterday's St. Moritz slalomwear gets appropriated by the hip-hop generation.

The show was a vivid illustration of the rebirth of a brand. Whether it's Gruber's iconic skiwear, limited-edition reissues of the Superstar sneaker (worn by 75 percent of NBA players by 1975), or vibrant retro soccerwear commemorating Mexico's 1970 World Cup, the new flagship at 848 Granville Street taps a collective nostalgia. Adidas has dug into its own vaults and brought back the looks of its past, while venturing farther into streetwear than any of its athletic-oriented competitors. "Every piece is unique and is rooted in sports history-every piece has a unique and identifiable story to it," explained Originals product manager Jessica Pavlin, before the opening show. "There are pieces taken right out of the archive and reintroduced, but then we also reinterpret and redevelop products."

To understand what it's doing today, you have to take a look at the past of a company whose three stripes and leafy "trefoil" logo are now instantly recognized around the globe. For those who grew up believing otherwise, Adidas actually derives its name from its founder, German Adolf "Adi" Dassler, who launched his sports-shoe brand in 1924 in the village of Herzogenaurach, where its headquarters remain to this day. He and his then-partner, brother Rudolph, understood the importance of celebrity endorsement early on: in 1928, they provided the athletes at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics with free shoes. It was a strategy that worked for Adidas throughout its history, including later, in 1971, when Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier both wore the brand in their showdown. (Originals has built an entire collection around iconic pieces from Ali's training camps during those early years, with sweats, boxing shoes, and other pieces emblazoned with graphics of the legend's mug, name, and sayings.) By the '80s, though, Nike's swoosh was overtaking the three stripes amid the athletic market. But again, the celebrity factor kicked in: rappers Run D.M.C. took to wearing Superstars and tracksuits and even devoted a song to the brand ("My Adidas"). That first foray into hip-hop cred would prove invaluable to the company, but it was still lagging in the marketplace in the early '90s, when the Material Girl took to wearing Gazelles and fashioning evening gowns out of three-stripe tracksuits.

Around that time another even more important trend happened: a new generation became obsessed with old-school sneakers-feverishly tracking down real Stan Smiths or Superstars. Eventually, Adidas started reissuing classic shoes under the Originals label. That led to reproducing and redesigning vintage sports clothing-those shiny Europa tracksuits worn most memorably by Ben Stiller in The Royal Tenenbaums were big on the ramp at the Vancouver opening-and, eventually, the genesis of the Originals store, based around "heritage looks". The first two opened in Berlin and Tokyo in 2001; ours is the first outpost in Canada.

Originals isn't just about old-school athletics anymore. Style icon Missy Elliott has teamed up with Adidas to create riffs on the classic, three-stripe track tops, including one cropped well above the navel, and another long, curvy coat that reaches below the hips. This season, there are also preppy-cool Country Club looks, with blazers and polo shirts emblazoned with the trefoil, and Japanese-style workwear that looks stolen from the set of the Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic" video shoot.

Pavlin sums up the success of the strategy this way: "It's been due to our rich history in sport, but also because it's a unique fusion of fashion, sport-, and streetwear."

Sure, the company plays up its past, but with its DJs and its b-boys and -girls, Vancouver's opening party could not have been something Dassler, the sports-shoe maker, might have imagined. As for Carlo Gruber, it's safe to say he could never have predicted those satiny, rubber-platformed Moon Boots would have made such effective breakdance footwear.