Surely every person has at least some thing from Adidas in their wardrobe, but, most likely, not everyone thought about who is its creator. The founders of this company are two brothers - Rudolf and Adolf Dassler.
Adolf, at home everyone called him Adi, was born in 1900 into a poor family in the city of Harzogenaurach. He was the 4th child. His mother worked in a laundry, and his father worked in a shoe factory. Most of all, Adolf communicated with his brother Rudolf, went in for sports together and constantly competed with each other.
In 1914, when Rudolph was taken into the army, Adolf began a fruitful study of his father's business. Football at that time was gaining immense popularity, and Adi enjoyed playing it.
There was a post-war period with devastation in the country, and his parents lost their jobs. For two whole years they worked part-time to feed the children and survive. But still they decide to take a serious step and open their own business - the production of shoes. In the former laundry room, it was decided to open their own workshop, where they initially sewed sleeping slippers, then gymnastic slippers. But Adolf really wanted to produce shoes for athletes.
In 1924, Rudolf expressed a desire to work with his brother, and they named the company Gebrüder Dassler. Adolf was in charge of the production process, while Rudolf was in charge of sales. At that time, the company employed 14 people.
In 1925, Adolf began developing the first football boots that required studs to produce. Rudolf went to the local blacksmith and formed a partnership with him. This football shoe proved itself well, and the young company managed to expand its turnover. Already more than 100 pairs a day the company produced in 1926, and after a while they managed to rent an entire factory for their production.
The brand gained popularity after the brothers decided to develop shoes for the participants in the 1928 Olympics. All German athletes already wore Dassler shoes. Production increased every day, more than 1,000 pairs per day were already being made. It's time to expand and buy another factory for production.
Adidas - brand development
As soon as the war ended, the Americans forced Adolf to develop and produce sports equipment for the United States. During the war, the business suffered quite a lot, so we had to start almost from the very beginning.
As soon as Rudolph returned from the war, he quarreled with his brother. What caused the conflict is unknown, and opinions differ. In 1948, the brand broke up, the brothers split into two different companies. And so it happened that Adolf called his company Addas, which would later be known as Adidas, and Rudolf created Puma. There was calmness in the relations of the brothers, but the relations of the companies somehow did not work out. Employees constantly competed and even at a meeting did not greet each other.
In 1954, Adidas appeared in Switzerland at the World Cup. Toward the end of the 50s, Adolf launched the production of various accessories and bags, and later - tracksuits with three stripes. Later, balls appeared that were used only in important world championships.
Adolf became the author of the first revolutionary development in 1957. It was a sports shoe with an air cushion. After a while, production was opened in Norway and France. Advertising campaigns were constantly carried out, the brightest athletes were in the lead role.
Robert Louis Dreyfus
In 1978, Adolf Dasler left the world, he was replaced by his wife Katharina. She ran the company for five years. But it seemed that with the death of Adolf and production gradually declined. Later, his daughters began to run the company, but they were not very good leaders, because they constantly quarreled among themselves.
In 1989, Adolf's daughters decided to sell 80% of the company to French entrepreneur Bernard Tapie. Tapi wanted to raise the company high, but nothing came of it. In 1993, he decided to sell Adidas to his friend Robert Louis-Dreyfus. Each time, sales grew, new developments appeared in the field of the shoe industry, and the company rose higher and higher every day.
In 2001, Louis left the company, but managed to prepare a replacement for himself. It was Herbert Heiner, who was fond of football from early childhood and knew everything about Adidas.
Since that moment, Herbert has made a significant contribution to production, developing new models of shoes, introducing the latest technology. Now the company has taken a leading position and stood in the ranks of the first among such famous brands as Nike and Puma.
80 years ago, in the German town of Herzogenaurach, a family quarrel broke out, thanks to which two iconic sports brands, adidas and Puma, were born. The very case when "misfortune helped."
Not everyone knows that the founders of the famous brands adidas and Puma - Rudolf and Adolf Dassler - are brothers. Having won the First World War, they decided to establish a shoe production. Since their father was a shoemaker, this is not surprising.
It is surprising that the brothers decided to make only sports shoes: in 1924, a crisis raged in Germany, the country had barely recovered from the war. However, contrary to fears, the start of Gebrüder Dassler was a success. Adolf designed shoes and knew the production brilliantly. Rudolf - passionately sold and easily found customers.
When Hitler came to power in 1933, this opened up new business opportunities for the Dasslers: the National Socialists spent a lot of money on sports and believed that the 1936 Olympics at home would raise the regime's reputation in the world.
The brothers bought a huge house and lived there together: on the first floor - the family of Adolf, on the second - Rudolf, above them - the parents. Alas, the idyll did not work out: the wives of the brothers - Friedl and Katya - cursed furiously.
Only a common goal saved the Dasslers from a total quarrel - to find an athlete who would "shoot" at the Olympics and make good advertising for the company. Adolf insisted on the American athlete Jesse Owens and, in order to persuade him, went to the Olympic village with a suitcase full of studded shoes.
Studs have revolutionized the shoe business. Owens was delighted when he tried them on, said the brothers' biographer Barbara Smith.
The success of the black athlete at the Olympics led to the Dasslers earning a staggering amount of 400 thousand marks in a year! – and purchased a new building for production. But their plans were destroyed by World War II.
In 1938, the Dasslers were called up again, and then sent to the front. The factory was taken away to make weapons on it. However, Adolf was soon allowed to return - to make shoes for the soldiers. Rudolph continued to serve at that time, and when he found out that his brother was already at home, he became incredibly angry.
After the war, the land of Bavaria, where Herzogenaurach is located, fell into the zone of American occupation.
“Rudolf was again less fortunate than his brother: because of his connections with the Gestapo, he was sent to an internment camp,” notes Smith.
Rudolf was kept there for almost a year. At this time, the company under the leadership of Adolf fulfilled the orders of the Americans and began to make shoes for basketball and baseball.
When Rudolph returned to the city, the brothers decided that they would no longer work together. In 1948 Rudy founded Puma.
Their factories were 500 meters apart, and each aspired to become more popular. It was good for the sport. But not family relations The brothers never reconciled.
Adolf (adidas) was always ahead of his brother. But in 1970, Rudolph secretly sent his son Armin to the Mexican World Cup - to give Pele a suitcase with $ 10 thousand. He put on Puma boots ... and literally blew up the sports shoe market.
However, this was a temporary success. In 2016, adidas net profit exceeded
1 billion euros (vs. 269 million euros for Puma).
Each great history there is a beginning
Tagline: Impossible is Nothing
Brand history Adidas began in 1924 in a small Bavarian town in Germany. Adolf Dassler registered the Dassler Brothers Shoe Company ( Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik), which began to specialize in sports equipment and equipment. The brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler were an extremely successful pair of leaders. Rudolph was an excellent manager, he sought to expand the business and establish new contacts. Adolf, a sports fanatic and football player, from his youth was interested in the creation of sports shoes, was an excellent engineer, and it was him who owned all best ideas companies. Years passed, the company Dassler flourished.
The year 1933 was for the Dassler brothers, as well as for the whole of Germany, and then for the whole world, a year of change. Adolf Hitler comes to power in the country, everyone is faced with a choice, and the brothers unanimously rely on a new leader and join the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party). They see bright prospects for the company in a future Nazi Germany. But Nazism brings with it consequences that are not so attractive for business, the Dassler brothers are forced to participate in the escalating war. Adolf Dassler soon returns to work, but the factory no longer produces sports shoes, but weapons for the army. Rudolf Dassler continues to serve, according to rumors, he was even a member of the Gestapo. The same rumors insist that at the end of the war, during the investigation conducted by the US military, Adolf Dassler actively participated in the process of exposing and accusing his own brother, on his behalf a denunciation was written accusing Rudolf Dassler of participating in Gestapo activities. Backlash and recriminations followed. You can read more about all these events in the book. Barbara Smit "Three Stripes Against Puma" (German - "Drei Streifen gegen Puma", English - "Three Stripes Versus Puma").
The war revealed all the contradictions that had accumulated between the brothers, and in 1948 the family company ceased to exist, now each of the brothers had to run their own business. Competing companies emerge Addas, now known as Adidas, and Ruda, today - Puma. It is also noteworthy that none of the brothers did not want to leave their hometown of Herzogenaurach and start their own business from scratch. The company was physically divided into two halves, along with the company, the town where the factory settled also split. A feature of the split was the river, dividing the city into two parts - on one bank it began to develop and is still developing successfully Adidas, on another - Puma.
The following year, 1949, Adi Dassler officially registers three stripes - the symbol of the company Adidas. Symbolizing the movement up the three steps, the Adidas badge also recalls the three basic principles of the production of sports shoes: shoes must be suitable for a particular sport, be durable and protect the athlete. In 1971, the famous Adidas shamrock appeared. Now the shamrock is a symbol of direction Sport heritage, the initial logo is a symbol of direction Sport Performance, and the symbol of the third direction sport style became a circle with three stripes.
Adolf and Rudolf Dassler did not communicate with each other until the death of one of the brothers. Although their relatives testify that both brothers were ready to reconcile and forget about their grievances, but the first step was not taken, the brothers never saw each other. Rudolf Dassler died in 1974, four years later his brother also dies, the brothers are buried in their hometown of Herzogenauerach. Their graves are located at different ends of a small cemetery in a small town.
After Adi Dassler's death in 1978, the company was taken over by his widow Katarina and later by his son Horst Dassler. It's interesting that Horst Dassler within the framework of the Adidas France company, which he managed, he created another brand Arena, which produces swimwear and, in turn, competes with both Adidas and Puma. In 1972, at the Summer Olympics in Munich, Horst witnessed a historic triumph Mark Spitz(Mark Spitz) - a swimmer who won 7 Olympic gold medals. The success of this American athlete made a deep impression on Horst, because Spitz not only won 7 gold medals, but also set 7 new world records at the same time. Realizing how strong the victory Spitz able to inspire millions of people around the world to take up swimming, Dassler immediately began planning the creation of a company for the production of products for swimming. aquatic species sports.
Control Adidas and Puma for a long time was carried out by the families of the brothers, the struggle continued in the form of competition between the two concerns. But today, both firms are no longer family businesses and have long been joint-stock companies.
AT modern world startups and bitcoin, thousands of companies are created, get rich and go bankrupt every day. But even some 70 years ago, businessmen went to success for many years, and sometimes for generations. A small shop of any small things turned into a solid large company, such as Marks & Spencer. And two simple German shoemakers hardly thought at one time that after a few decades they would dress and shoe half the world.
Of course, we are talking about the Dassler brothers, who founded two brands of sportswear at once, known to every gopnik in our country - Adidas and Puma.
Shoemaker's and laundress's children
The brothers Rudolf and Adolf Dassler were born at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries into a poor German family. His father was a shoemaker in a shoe factory, and his mother was a laundress. From early childhood, as biographers like to write in such cases, the guys got used to hard work - they helped their mother deliver clean linen to customers.
In 1914 the First World War. First, the elder Rudolf went to the front, and a little later Adolf also became under arms. The brothers were lucky, in this meat grinder they managed to survive and return home to their parents.
After that, their paths diverged for a while. At this moment, a big difference in the characters of the brothers manifested itself. Adolf was a practical man and endured monotonous work well, so he went to his father's shoe factory. The talkative Rudolf was not very inclined to such work, but he had a lively sociable character, so he got a job with the police. There, however, his talkativeness was not appreciated, so he soon became a distributor of goods, first at a porcelain factory, and then at a leather factory.
Adolf by that time had already organized his own small company for the manufacture of sports shoes. Adi was in love with football, which is why he tried to create boots, roughly speaking, “for himself”. In this he was assisted by blacksmiths, the Zelein brothers, who made spikes for boots. And everything would be fine, but Adolf did not like to sell, that is, communicate directly with customers. And then he remembered his brother.
Already by 1920, the Dasslers were working together. Adi was in charge of production and Rudy was in charge of sales. Their talents complemented each other perfectly. The first years of the company did not live well. What is worth only the fact that Rudolf brought a typewriter as his contribution to the enterprise.
But by 1924 the company had taken off. Now it was called Gebrüder Dassler, and their boots, created by the painstaking Adolf and sold by the agile Rudolf, were gaining popularity in the city of Herzogenaurach and the surrounding area. Already by 1928, their shoes were chosen by several athletes who competed at the Olympic Games. And we all understand what a good advertisement it is. And after American runner Jesse Owens won four gold medals and set one world record in Gebrüder Dassler shoes in 1936, customers began to flow to the brothers like a river.
Nazism and quarrel
True, one more event had happened before that, which they don’t like to remember now. In 1932, after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the Dassler brothers joined his National Socialist Party.
It is difficult to say whether they were convinced Nazis, or simply saw purely financial prospects in this. The cult of strength and sport that the Nazis promoted in an attempt to “bring out” the superman promised good profits to the manufacturers of sports equipment. After all, the superman also needs to put on shoes. Why not in boots from Gebrüder Dassler?
It was only with the outbreak of the Second World War that it turned out that Hitler's economy as a whole, of course, was a market one. But when the Reich needs it, it’s very planned. Part of the production capacity of their factory was taken for military purposes, to make boots for soldiers, and Rudolph was completely drafted into the army. Although he had no desire to fight.
Cunning Rudy, however, never got to the front. He invented night blindness for himself and remained at the headquarters as a clerk. But the Nazis were rapidly losing the war. In 1945, Rudolf's nerves could not stand it, and he fled from the advancing Reds. The Gestapo appreciated this move and arrested him for desertion. But he did not reach the concentration camp, because the Americans intervened, who released him to immediately arrest him for ... cooperation with the Gestapo.
And here the most interesting begins. They say different things. There is a version that it was his brother Adolf who denounced Rudolf to the occupying authorities, however, it is not clear for what reasons. In any case, while under arrest, Rudy poured slop on his brother to the fullest. During interrogations, he told the Americans that Adolf himself volunteered to make shoes for German soldiers, as he was a staunch Nazi and an enemy of the German people. It is still unknown whether he took revenge for the denunciation or, conversely, took the initiative. The Americans did not lose their heads either, and, using these accusations, they lived in Adolf's mansion for a whole year and forced him to make hockey skates for the United States.
In any case, the friendship and business cooperation of the Dassler brothers was put to an end. In 1948, their father died - the last person who could somehow reconcile them.
Adidas and Puma
Herzogenaurach in the middle of the 20th century is a small, intimate city, everyone knows each other. Therefore, one large shoe factory was a curiosity. And already two, and even more so.
The Dasslers divided the enterprise into two, now they were called Ruda and Addas, by the names of the brothers. The factories were located on different banks of the river, so that soon the entire population of the city was divided into two large camps of shoe fans from one of the companies.
Soon Rudolf changed the name from Ruda to Puma and added the famous puma logo. And Adolf added one letter to the name and one stripe to the logo, so Adidas was born.
Interestingly, it was the hard-working Adi who first came to success, and not the resourceful Rudy. Already by the 1960s, his company was a major supplier of sportswear, shoes and clothes for the German national football team. Puma, on the other hand, remained a relatively small company for a long time, and only closer to the death of Rudolph went uphill. However, he also had large contracts. It was Rudy who wore the Brazilian national football team.
Several times the brothers sued for the right to use a particular slogan or a manufacturing patent. Adolf joked about this that “if every time there was a hole on Rudolph when I kicked him and said:“ Hey, this is my invention, ”he would now look like Swiss cheese.”
Legend
Rudolf died in 1974 from lung cancer. Adolf did not come to the funeral. Although it is known for sure: when the priest called him and asked him to come to say goodbye to his brother, Adi replied that he forgives his brother, but he will not come either. The official press release was sparse: "Adolf Dassler's family would not like to comment on the death of Rudolf Dassler."
And four years later, Adolf himself died. Adidas and Puma are still competitors in the sportswear market, although they belong to completely different people who are not even relatives of the Dasslers.
Rudolf Dassler was born in 1898 in the small town of Herzogenaurach, which belongs to Bavaria. Rudolph was born into a poor family of a shoemaker and a laundress and became the third child in the family.
Rudolf's childhood was by no means easy, as the family did not have enough money, and he was forced to work as a linen delivery man in a laundry along with his brothers. As a teenager, Rudolf worked as an assistant in his father's shoe factory. It is worth noting that in 1900 another son was born in the family, the younger brother of Rudolf - Adolf, who became one of the key figures on the path to the success of Rudolf Dassler.
In 1914, during the First World War, Rudolph was taken into the army, from where he was sent to the front zone in Belgium, where he spent almost the entire war as a soldier.
After returning to his homeland, Rudolf graduated with honors from police courses and got a job at the local police department in the city of Munich. Despite his good abilities in this business, Rudolph decided to change jobs and got a job at one of the local factories as a distributor of porcelain products, and later at an enterprise that produced leather products.
In 1923, Rudolf's younger brother invited Rudy to his small shoe factory, which he had opened 3 years before. Rudolf immediately became a full partner of his brother and a share owner of the company. It is worth noting that as a contribution for a share in the company, Rudolf brought one typewriter to the enterprise.
The beginning of the formation of the Dassler shoe company
The Dasslers have been involved in sports since childhood and were ardent fans of it, so the main focus of the company was on the production of sports shoes. In the early stages of its development, the company consisted of the Dassler brothers, a blacksmith friend who designed spikes for sports shoes, and a small production team.
Later, each of the brothers took their place in the company, if the younger brother was mainly engaged in the production of shoes and the development of new models, the older one specialized in sales and brand advertising.
In 1924 the company was officially registered under the name "Gebrüder Dassler". The company's business was getting better every month, the brand's popularity was growing, and production was expanding by leaps and bounds.
A special surge in popularity occurred in 1928, when during the next Olympic Games, 3 participants at once decided to perform in Dassler sneakers. Further, the popularity of the brand grew mainly due to major sporting events, so in 1932 a German runner won bronze at the Olympic Games in Gebrüder Dassler sneakers.
A real sensation for the company was the conquest of 4 gold medals at the Olympic Games in Berlin by an American athlete who performed in shoes of the brand of the same name. From that moment on, the whole world started talking about the Dassler brothers and their shoes.
Shoe Company's Big Trouble
It is no secret that the brothers were staunch Nazis and supported the ideas of the Third Reich. At the beginning of World War II, the factory was converted and began to produce shoes for Nazi soldiers.
In 1943, Rudolf Dassler was mobilized to the front, where he managed to find a loophole so as not to participate in hostilities. Rudolph feigned night blindness and began working at the headquarters with papers.
During the offensive of the Red Army, Rudolph fled to the rear, where he was arrested and charged with desertion and sent to a concentration camp. Before reaching the camp, he was released by the Soviet troops, but was again arrested, as it turned out, on the report of his younger brother.
American soldiers took over the factory and began to produce skates that were sent to the United States, in addition, they occupied the Dassler mansion. For the fact that his brother denounced him, Rudolf told the US military that the initiative to help Nazi soldiers with shoes belongs exclusively to his brother. From that moment, the age-old enmity of the Dassler brothers began. Shoe production was resumed only at the end of the war in 1946.
The brothers divided the business among themselves. Thus, two competing factories appeared, which at the beginning of their journey had the names Addas and Ruda.
Development of confrontation
Rudolf Dassler renamed his company Puma, his brother followed suit and renamed his brand Adidas.
From that moment on, the toughest confrontation between shoe companies in the world began, which dragged on for many decades.
Manufacturers begin to sponsor almost all sporting events, in particular football championships. In 1958, Rudy sues his younger brother for an advertising slogan that claimed Adidas was the best sports shoe in the world.
Over the years, the confrontation subsides a bit, the brothers conclude an agreement not to advertise shoes from the best football players in the world, so as not to raise prices in the advertising market, and transfer the reins of control of their companies to their sons Armin and Horst.
In 1970, Puma breaks the agreement and signs a contract with Pele, the most famous football player of the time. At the start of the 1970 FIFA World Cup, Pele enters the match wearing Puma boots and starts tying his shoelaces in the very center of the circle before the match even starts. Hatred between brothers flares up with new force and passed on to his sons, starting a new stage of confrontation between world leaders in the production of footwear for sports.
Rudolf Dassler dies in 1976 from cancer, Adolf Dassler did not come to the funeral and did not comment on his brother's death.