Two feuding brothers split one shoe factory into Adidas and Puma
Adi Dassler began making sports shoes in his mother's laundry room, sometimes powering the machines with a stationary bicycle when the electricity failed. Two decades later he and his brother Rudolf fell out so badly that their small German town split in two, and the rift gave the world both Adidas and Puma.
Adolf Dassler, known as Adi, started out in Herzogenaurach after returning from the First World War. His older brother Rudolf joined in July 1924, and the venture became the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory. Adi worked on spiked running shoes, replacing heavy metal designs with canvas and rubber. His big break came in 1936, when he talked American sprinter Jesse Owens into wearing handmade Dassler spikes at the Berlin Olympics. Owens won four gold medals, and before the war the brothers were selling 200,000 pairs a year.
The war years were darker. Both brothers joined the Nazi Party in 1933, the factory mainly supplied the Wehrmacht, and from 1943 it turned out anti-tank weapons. In 1945 American troops nearly destroyed the plant, until Adi's wife persuaded them the firm only cared about sports shoes; the occupying soldiers then became major customers.
Relations between the brothers collapsed in 1947. Adi registered his company on 18 August 1949, naming it from his own nickname and surname, while Rudolf founded Ruda, later renamed Puma. The popular claim that Adidas stands for All Day I Dream About Sports is a myth. Herzogenaurach took sides so fiercely that it earned the nickname the town of bent necks, because locals glanced down to check strangers' shoes, and even its two football clubs were split between the firms. The brothers never made peace and lie in the same cemetery, placed as far apart as possible.
The famous three stripes were bought in 1952 from the Finnish company Karhu Sports for the equivalent of 1,600 euros and two bottles of whiskey. Today Adidas is Europe's largest sportswear maker and the world's second after Nike, with 2024 revenue of 23 billion euros and a stake in Bayern Munich. Its best-selling shoe is the Samba.
Source: Adidas
