Adidas vs Puma has been a sporting rivalry for more than 60 years. Do you know the story behind it? Well if we tell you that it has something to do with the era of World War and Olympics. Literally, you will be amazed.
Can you imagine that there is a connection between the shoes Olympic medalist Jesse Ownes wore in the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin and the anti tank missile launcher Panzerschrek? Oddly enough, both of these contrasting items in nature were manufactured by the same company.
Here starts the background story of Puma and Adidas. Before splitting and becoming two big renowned sports apparel and footwear companies, the company was known as the Dassler Brother Shoe Factory.
There were two brothers, Adolf Dassler and Rudolf Dassler, who were the pioneer of this giant shoe making business but their story was neither straight nor simple. The story of struggle, unity and then rivalry started in 1930s at Herzogenaurach, a town situated near Nuremberg.
The area was pretty much into the hands of German Air Force during the days of Weimar Republic. The humiliating restrictions imposed by the Versailles Treaty had made German small businesses ran out of cash and customers. One of those businesses was a laundry run of run by Adolf and Rudolf’s mother.
After the unfortunate culmination of World War one, the younger brother Adolf came back to the town and watched his mother’s business going shallow. Subsequently, he decided to start a footwear shop in the area of non-functional laundry.
A few years later when the older brother Rudolf came, both of the brothers decided to expand the business line with the injection of creativity and innovation. Thus they founded “Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory” which was the parent company of today’s Puma and Adidas.
Well it’s difficult to imagine today but they produced their own electricity using a cycle. In the post war era, the materials required for shoe production wasn’t to be found easily. So the younger brother Adolf used left out Army debris, tents; using storage pouches to create the leather for soles while using parachutes pieces for feather edge and upper sides.
A few years of hard work started to show some signs of success for them. Both brothers pestered German atheletes of the time to wear their shoes. Their dedication and commitment had led them to create football shoes with spikes and nailed studs by the year 1925, a significant success.
In 1925, German track and field athelete Josef Waitzer showed interest in Dassler Brothers’ shoes. This played a pivotal role in the success of the company. Waitzer was so impressed with Adolf’s advanced design in sporting shoes that he decided to visit Herzogenaurach to see the production first hand.
From thereon, there was no looking back. Waitzer played an unofficial role of advisor to the company and being an athelete himself, he knew what would be in demand. In 1928 Amsterdam games, the first woman 800 m Olympic gold medalist Lina Radke wore shoes made by Dassler Brothers.
The most significant factor in the rise of Dassler Brothers in becoming a giant company was Hitler’s rise to power. In 1933, just after three months of Hitler’s ascension to the rank of chancellor, the Dassler brothers joined Nazi Party, it is not yet known if they were truly passionate about the ideology or it was economic perspective that led their interest.
In any case, it was boom for Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory. Adolf primarily concerned himself with youth and sporting organisations affiliated with Nazi Party. Sport and athelticism played a big role in party’s ideology because it symbolised strength, confidence and unity. During 1936 summer olympics, Dassler Brothers pursuaded American track and field star Jesse Ownes who won 4 olympic gold medals wearing the shoes offered by them.
On the good side, the company sales were booming because top tear atheletes were showing interest in Dassler Brothers’ shoes. On the flip side, the rift between family members had started to create the trouble. The whole family lived in a single house and after the marriage of Adolf with Käthe Martz, things started to deteriorate.
Käthe was suspicious and self assertive, she had often disagreements with Adolf’s parents and Rudolf’s family over minor matters. Amidst the family struggle, both brothers continued to expand the business. In August 1940, Adolf was a notice for conscription but within 6 months he was relieved from the duty on grouds that his role in company was significant which was going to produce war materials this time.
The war sprit was so dominant that the company had to produced shoes named “Kampf” means “Fight” and “Blitz” means “Lightning”. At this point rift between family members went deeper, Rudolf’s elder sister wanted her two sons to get employed in the company so they can avoid being sent to the frontiers but unfortunately it did not happen and both of Marie’s sons were killed on fronts.
Rudolf himself was sent to the frontiers in 1943, and at this point he feared that his younger brother will take over everything. In absence of Rudolf, the Dassler Brothers’ company began to disintegrate and under the Total War—Shortest War) campaign ordained by Nazis, industrial complexes were converted into military production houses. To strengthen to war effort, the Dassler firm was ordered to produce Panzerschreck, an anti-tank missile designed on the function of Bazooka produced by the Americans.
The riff between brothers grew deeper and Shortly before the Soviets ravaged his unit in Tuschin during early 1945, Rudolf took evasive action and returned to their hometown. His intention was to prevent his brother from assuming complete control over the factory. The specifics of his activities during this interval remain shrouded in ambiguity until April, when his path intersected with the Gestapo’s grasp, leading to his subsequent incarceration in Nuremberg until early May.
As April of 1945 rolled in, American forces descended upon Herzogenaurach. In a strategic maneuver, the U.S. Third Army seized the military airfield, which, remarkably, wasn’t handed back to the German government until 1992.
Additionally, they contemplated demolishing the factory, but the family adeptly intervened, persuading the American forces that it was, in fact, merely a shoe manufacturing facility. An advantageous twist emerged here due to the lingering memory of Dassler shoes worn by Jesse Owens during the Berlin Olympics. Ultimately, the factory escaped harm, and a number of the American soldiers later evolved into patrons of the company.
Subsequently, as the occupying forces initiated the denazification process, both siblings faced scrutiny for their actions during the Nazi regime’s reign. In July 1945, the American authorities detained Rudolf, subjecting him to an inquiry regarding his alleged involvement with the SS and the secretive “Sicherheitsdienst.”
Rudolf consistently disavowed any voluntary collaboration with the Nazis. After a year, his release transpired, as it became evident that he posed no security menace. During this period, Rudolf nurtured the belief that his brother Adolf was instrumental in orchestrating his arrest.
The family fued was irrevocable and during the denazification process, both brothers tried their best to put the other in trouble. Rudolf was acquited in July 1946. However because Adolf was still in charge when Dassler firm produced around 100,000 Panzerschreck. After few testimonies and witnesses throughout the year, Adolf was finally set free to run the firm in 1947.
During the offset, the firm was run by a board of trustees and upon regaining control, both brothers decided to part ways. Adolf Dassel founded the company Adidas based on the initial of first name and surname. If you look around and ask someone what Adidas stands for, unreservedly they will say “All Day I Dream About Sports”, tell them it’s not true.
Rudolf named him company RuDa initially but it was soon changed Puma which is a name for cougar in quechuan languages. Puma, compared to Adidas, raised to international level at later stages. Only when Rudolf’s son Armin Dassler came to leading role, the company began to compete at international level.
Adidas and Puma have remained fierce adversaries since their inception, engaged in a persistent global market rivalry. Despite the evolution, neither of these corporations remains under the stewardship of the Dassler lineage. Rudolf Dassler’s life was claimed by lung cancer in 1974, while Adolf’s demise occurred in 1978 due to heart failure. Interestingly, their resting places are juxtaposed in the same cemetery, though distinctly distant from each other.
Situated on opposing banks of the Aurach River, the headquarters of both Adidas and Puma are rooted in Herzogenaurach. A geographical testament to their prolonged and contrasting existence, this dichotomy perpetuates their long-standing narrative.
A striking gesture of conciliation was made in 2009 when employees from both Adidas and Puma united for a congenial soccer match. This symbolic event held mixed teams, serving as a metaphorical burial of their protracted animosity after decades of hostile competition.
