Dassler biography

Adidas and Puma History of the Brothers Dassler History of Puma and Adidas Brands Family Secrets, Brotherly Rivalry, Warming clans, human dramas against the backdrop of stormy events of world history ... Do you think this description of the novel or movie? No, all this happened in real life, so the story of two brands we knew - Puma and Adidas. Let's start with deciphering the names of both companies.

Few people know that behind the usual names of brands are the names of the two brothers Adolf Adolf and Rudolf Rudolf Dassler Dassler. Today these are two separate companies. Initially, everything was different: the shoe factory of the Dassler brothers was an example of a German family enterprise of the 10ths. The whole family of Dassler, including parents, brothers and sisters, worked hard, gradually creating a family business.

Adi Dassler was a fan of sports and a good football player, he enthusiastically began to create sports shoes, later his brother and the whole family joined him. From small orders that were executed manually, right in the laundry of their own house, gradually expanding and working day and night, the family finally achieved the first success. Rudy and Adi were an extremely successful couple of managers.

Rudolf was an excellent manager, he sought to expand the case and establish new connections, and Adolf was an excellent engineer. Adolf Hitler comes to power in the country, each is confronted with a choice and the brothers unanimously make a bet on the new leader and join the NSDAP. They see rainbow prospects for the company in future Nazi Germany. In addition to political motives, an important role was played by the ideologies of all totalitarian regimes, the cult of a healthy body, mass sports, all this was the best in combination with business for the production of sports shoes.

But Nazism brings with itself not so attractive consequences for business, the Dasslers brothers are forced to participate in a hot war. Adolf Dassler soon returns to work, but the factory is no longer producing sports shoes, but weapons for the army. Rudolf Dassler continues to serve, according to rumors, he even consisted of Gestapo. The same rumors persistently argue that at the end of the war, during the investigation conducted by the American military Adolf Dassler, he actively participated in the process of exposing and accusing his own brother, a denunciation was written on his behalf, accusing Rudolph of Dassler of participation in the activities of the Gestapo.

Title accusations, mutual attacks and digging in family dirty linen also followed. After the proceedings, Rudolf Dassler was placed in an American camp for the interned, but soon returns to the management of the company. More and more contradictions are accumulated in family relationships. The brothers, who once worked together for the sake of a common cause, have now become fatal enemies, who were not ready to forgive resentment and even become the smallest.

Bottom line: friction, nit -picking and conflicts spilled out. This period in the history of two companies is often called a “big gap”.

The competition between the brothers, once expressed only in sports and children's games, has now grown into mortal enmity and irreconcilable hatred. Both brothers considered themselves worthy to lead the family business, the two owners were crowded in the same factory. The war revealed all the contradictions that they managed to accumulate between the brothers, and in the year the family company ceased to exist, now each of the brothers had to conduct their own business independently.

Competing companies ADDAS and RUDA appear, today-Puma. The piquancy of the situation was that not one of the brothers wished to leave his hometown of Herzogenauer Herzogenaurach and start his job from scratch. The company was physically divided into two halves, together with the company split the town in which the factory settled. The river became a line of the split, dividing the city into two parts - on one shore began to develop and to this day Adidas is developing safely, on the other - Puma.

In the majority of their employees of Adidas lived on one shore, on the other, Puma workers, the enmity between the inhabitants of the same city has never stopped, the relations of the inhabitants of the two coast of the river resemble the relations of the fans of the two instructions, which are transmitted from generation to generation and do not lose their intensity, although no one can call the exact reason for the dislike.

There is a joke in the town that when meeting someone, a local resident primarily looks at shoes in order to understand whether a stranger or adidas is a stranger, a friend or an enemy, his own or a stranger. After the collapse of the joint factory, some players of the German national football team entered the field in the Bots created by Rudolf. The first victory happened only in the year, when Joseph Bartel, put down in brand products, defeated the distance of meters.

After 2 years, there was another triumph: a world record for running a short distance. Hinz Fetterer who installed him was in Puma sneakers.It is interesting that despite the fact that many celebrities won and, in modern terms, the company “PR”, the famous logo appeared only in the year. The brand war is not limited to the borders of one small town, world sporting competitions, such as the Olympic Games and the finals of the World Cup, have become an arena.

And the actors are the most famous sport stars, fabulous sums and not the most clean methods were used. Adidas managed to attract Muhhamed Ali, Zinedin Zidan, David Beckham to the advertisement of her goods, and Puma, in turn, enlisted the support of Boris Bekker, Pele, Martina Navvatilova and many other famous athletes. However, the brightest stars in the world of sports used to move from one enemy camp to another, drawn by rustling or a ringing of gratitude from companies.

An interesting fact: around the possible cooperation of one of the companies with the star of football - Pele - a whole war broke out. The companies have concluded a kind of “Pact Pele”, not one of the companies had to “claim” cooperation and negotiate with the athlete, since both parties reasonably assumed that trying to exceed each other's money proposals, as at a peculiar auction, would go beyond all possible financial limits and not only undermine the budget of one of the companies, but also create a dangerous precedent in the world of sports, raise those The unspoken prices that have already been established in the relations of athletes, primarily players, and companies for the production of sports shoes and accessories.

But the pact was broken, Adidas still paid Pele for advertising her products, violating all the agreements. This very strongly spilled the enemy of companies, in which the sons of the founders of Armin and Horst Dasslera now took part, and also predictably inflated the prices for advertising services in the world of sports. Adolf and Rudolf Dasslers did not communicate with each other until the death of one of the brothers.

Although their loved ones indicate that both brothers were ready to reconcile and forget about their grievances, the local priest even negotiated about a possible meeting, but the first step was not taken, the brothers did not see each other. Rudolf Dassler died in a year, four years later his brother dies, brothers are buried in his hometown of Hertzogenauer.

Their graves are in different ends of the small cemetery of a small town. The Adidas and Puma management for a long time was carried out by the families of the brothers, the struggle continued in the form of competition of two concerns of world significance. But today both firms are no longer a family business, they have long become joint -stock companies. Adidas and Puma, although they remained competitors in the market of sports shoes and clothes, this competition has passed into the business sphere, no one remembers the passions that he raged when the brands were young.

Summing up the results of this dramatic story, it would be interesting to get the answer to the question: would two companies become world leaders, if not for such a tough competition between them? We would know about the existence of the brands of Puma, Adidas or Dassler if the story turned differently, or maybe the shoe business would remain a family enterprise in the provincial German town, respected and hard to do not know?

Read more about the events described in the article, you can read in the book of Barbara Smith Barbara Smit “Three stripes against the pum”. The story of two brothers ”“ Adidas vs. Puma: The Tale of Two Brothers ”, which we advise everyone to watch.