Adidas and designers turn dirndls into Oktoberfest fashion

Adidas is launching new dirndls on Tuesday, as sportswear companies and fashion labels increasingly use traditional dress to enter the Oktoberfest market, BR reports. The brand’s latest design follows last year’s controversial sports dirndl, which drew both praise and criticism online.

More companies with little connection to traditional clothing are now producing dirndls, including Munich designer duo Talbot/Runhof and the Franconian sports outfitter Adidas. Their strategy reflects the growing expectation that visitors wear traditional dress at Oktoberfest while still standing out from the crowd.

Adidas’ 2026 dirndl differs from last year’s model. The earlier version had a sporty upper section resembling a polo shirt, while the new design takes its cues from a traditional dirndl with a pronounced neckline and a blouse made from transparent gauze fabric. Many sizes of last year’s model sold out quickly, although the article notes that limited availability is a common luxury-industry tactic used to support high prices.

For sports companies, the move is part of a broader effort to expand beyond sportswear. They have long used their sporting image to sell everyday clothing and footwear, including trainers that are not worn for sport. Dirndls offer another market beyond the sports arena.

Some users criticised Adidas’ design as unrelated to traditional dress and accused the company of misusing a Bavarian tradition. But the dirndl itself has only limited links to historical customs, according to the article. Historian Eric Hobsbawm described it as an “invented tradition”. City women began wearing dirndls in the late 19th century when travelling to the countryside, using imagined clothing that borrowed elements from Upper Bavarian dress without copying any specific traditional outfit.

The dirndl nevertheless became increasingly associated with Bavaria and traditional Germany. It was popular in Berlin as early as the 1930s, while hostesses at the 1972 Olympics wore light-blue sports dirndls intended to combine tradition and modernity. Wearing a dirndl at Oktoberfest has not always been expected; the article describes that practice as a relatively recent development associated with millennials and Generation Z.

Dirndl researcher Simone Eggers compares the garment with jeans: both have moved far from their original uses and become ordinary items of clothing. The dirndl is now fashion, the article argues, and its lack of historical authenticity gives designers room to experiment. The resulting tension between tradition and innovation can also generate attention and attract buyers.