It has subsidiaries in France, Germany, and the United States, and also operates through a global network of distributors and licensees, with presence in over 100 countries around the world.

The idea of producing sportswear came up to Dassler after the astounding performance of swimmer Mark Spitz at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, where he won seven gold medals.

One year later, Arena signed its first sponsorship agreement with Australian swimmer Shane Gould, who had won 5 Olympic medals at Munich.

[4] Having realised that sponsorship was a key to his brand's success, Arena signed other individual athletes for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

Some athletes sponsored were Mark Spitz, Novella Calligaris, Steve Furniss, David Wilke, Shirley Babashoff, Gary Hall, Klaus Dibiasi, and Ulrika Knape, among others.