Adidas and Puma are ranked up there with some of the biggest brands in the world and are possibly the biggest sporting brands along with Nike. What many people do not realise is that they were once the same company and both Adidas and Puma were born out of a bitter brotherly rivalry from the small Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach that had a population of around 3,500 in 1922.
Brothers Rudolf and Adolf Dassler have had such an effect on this tiny medievil town that to this day, 60 years on there is still a divide between the villagers. Each side even has their own Butchers, Bakers, Bars and Schools.
The story started in the 1920′s when both the brothers lived at home with their mother. They started a business based in the washroom and it was a sucess. In 1924, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler founded the “Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory” that specialized in athletic shoes.
Business began to boom and during the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, a German sprinter wearing Dassler spikes took the bronze medal. This was to be eclipsed 4 years later when Jesse Owens, the best sprinter in the world, stormed to victory in the 100 Metres at the 1936 Berlin Olympic games. The world known sprinter went on to win 4 gold medals and in doing so was wearing the sprint shoes manufactured by the Dassler Brothers. This was to establish the Dassler Brothers with a worldwide reputation and paved the way for a sucsessfull future.
In 1933, both of the brothers joined the Nazi party and their factory was also used to make military equipment as many small and medium sized company premesis did during this period. This was part of Hitlers ‘Total War Economy’ and in 1943, final blow came for the Dassler shoe production and also most civilian business in Herzogenaurach as everyone was working for the military. Hitler’s regime officialy ordered a halt to all civilian business operations, and the shoe-making machines in part of the Dassler Brothers’ factory were replaced with spot-welding equipment for making weapons.
The Dasslers were somewhat fortunate their business did not get destroyed by American forces. When the US army marched into Herzogenaurach in April 1945 , the US tanks pulled up in front of the factory and the soldiers were debating whether to destroy the factory when Adi’s wife, Käthe, walked out and convinced them that the company and its employees were only interested in manufacturing sports shoes.
The US Air Force then set up its own operations at the former military air base in Herzogenaurach and when Americans got wind of the fact that the Dassler brothers had produced the shoes that Jesse Owens had run in, they started buying all the products the company could produce, catapulting the company again onto worldwide sucess.
From the beginning it was clear there were differences between the pair and even more so when the war began and one of the brothers appeared closer to the Nazi cause than the other.
This caused to much friction between “Rudi” and “Adi” as they were known, and eventually they were to go their seperate ways and never speak again, they are even buried in the same cemetry yet there gravestones are as far apart as you could possibly get.
In 1948, the brothers split their business, Rudolf (Rudi) then set up a rival firm on one side of the river called ‘Ruda’ before changing to ‘Puma’ and Adolf stayed put and shortened his name to Adi to form the company Adidas.
