The Brothers Dassler: The Fallout that Created adidas and PUMA

The Big Cat vs. the Three Stripes.

The long-time rivalry between Germany’s most prominent sportswear brands goes far above and beyond your usual run-of-the-mill corporate competition. Rather than a friendly tug-of-war for bragging rights and recognition as the best Germany has to offer, the whole Big Cat versus Three Stripes saga grew out of a bitter family feud that spanned the better part of six decades, and thoroughly divided their hometown.

Images with thanks to PUMA

The Dassler Brothers Sports Shoe Company

Long before the existence of adidas and PUMA, there was the Dassler Brothers Sports Shoe Company. Established in the 1920s in the small German town of Herzogenaurach, the Dassler Brothers Sports Shoe Company was run out of their mother’s laundry room by Adolf ‘Adi’ Dassler and the elder Rudolf ‘Rudi’ Dassler. Perhaps inspired by their father Christoph (a weaver-turned-cobbler), Adi and Rudolf began repairing shoes in their hometown following World War I and, by 1925, they had made a name for themselves with their leather football boots – complete with nailed studs – and spiked track shoes.

The Dassler brothers were some of the first to champion specialised sporting footwear, and their early designs caught the eye of Josef Waitzer, former Olympian and the then-coach of Germany’s Olympic track and field team. After travelling from Munich to Herzogenaurach to get a look at the shoes for himself, Waitzer and the Dasslers struck up a friendship that would prove immeasurably valuable in the years ahead. In 1936, the brothers were given the opportunity to outfit both domestic and foreign athletes for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The Games ultimately acted as an international springboard for the Dasslers as their creations – which were distinctive for two leather strips running up the sides – were front and centre throughout.

Most notably, American athletics star Jesse Owens, who received shoes from the Dasslers themselves ahead of the Games, wore their spikes on his way to four gold medals and one of the most iconic performances in Olympic history.

Image with thanks to adidas

The Fallout

Unfortunately for the Dasslers, they were never truly able to enjoy the success of their company. Instead, their relationship quickly became strained from tensions arising from the success, as well as the fact that their wives couldn’t get along – while the two families were living in the same villa, no less.

Things only worsened once World War II began. Adi was released from military service as the perceived leader of the Dassler firm, further straining his relationship with Rudolf. Things supposedly came to a head when Herzogenaurach was bombed by the Allies during the war. As Adi and his wife climbed into a bomb shelter that was already occupied by Rudolf and his wife, Adi supposedly exclaimed, ‘The dirty bastards are back again!’ in reference to the Allied Forces. Rudolf, however, was convinced that the remark was directed at him, and so the feud between the two brothers escalated to new heights.

After that moment in the bomb shelter, things would never be the same for the Dassler family.

When Rudolf was called up for service, he immediately suspected that Adi had conspired to send him there to get him out of the way. While serving in the war, Rudolf was captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp. It was later confirmed that Adi had been responsible for Rudolf’s arrest at the hands of the Allied Forces, selling him out to the Americans as a supposed member of the Gestapo.

Finally, in 1948, Adi and Rudolf bitterly parted ways, dividing their company’s assets and employees between the two of them, before establishing adidas and ‘Ruda’ (eventually renamed PUMA), respectively, on opposite banks of the river that runs through Herzo.

Peace One Day

Fast-forward a few decades, and the fallout from the Dassler split was still apparent. Some local businesses would only serve either adidas or PUMA employees, while Herzogenaurach itself became known as ‘the town of broken necks’ – because locals would always look at your shoes before deciding whether or not they would talk to you.

Adi and Rudi were enemies up until the very end, never reconciling before their deaths. In the end, they were buried at opposite ends of the same cemetery in Herzo so that they could still be as far away from one another as possible.

Thankfully, however, cooler heads have prevailed more recently: in 2009, the two companies staged a soccer friendly to symbolise the end of 60 years of conflict.

Nowadays, the two brands exist, amicably in their own ways.

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