Adolf dassler professional qualities. Puma and Adidas: a non-childish dispute between two brothers

V modern world startups and bitcoin companies, 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 whole generations. A small shop of all 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.

We are talking, of course, about the Dassler brothers, who founded two brands of sportswear at once, known to every gopnik in our country - Adidas and Puma.

Children of a shoemaker and a laundress

The brothers Rudolph 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 began World War... First, the elder Rudolph went to the front, and a little later Adolf also became armed. 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 great difference in the characters of the brothers appeared. Adolf was a practical man and well tolerated monotonous work, the poet went to his father at a shoe factory. The talkative Rudolph was not very inclined to such work, but he had a lively sociable character, so he got a job in the police. There, however, his talkativeness was not appreciated, so he soon became a distributor of goods, first at a porcelain, and then at a tannery.

By that time, Adolf had already organized his own small company for the manufacture of sports shoes. Adi was in love with football, so he tried to create boots, roughly speaking, "for himself." In this he was helped by the blacksmiths, the Celain brothers, who made spikes for the boots. And everything would be fine, but Adolf did not like to sell, that is, to communicate directly with customers. And then he remembered about his brother.

By 1920, the Dasslers worked together. Adi was in charge of the production side and Rudy was in charge of the sales side. Their talents complemented each other perfectly. The first years the company did not live well. That is just the fact that Rudolph brought a typewriter as his contribution to the enterprise.

But by 1924, the company had taken off. Now it was called the Gebrüder Dassler, and their boots, created by the painstaking Adolf and sold by the dexterous Rudolph, were gaining popularity in the city of Herzogenaurach and the surrounding area. By 1928, their shoes were chosen by several athletes who competed in the Olympic Games. And we all understand what a good advertisement this is. And after American runner Jesse Owens, wearing Gebrüder Dassler shoes, took four gold medals and set one world record in 1936, clients flooded to the brothers.

Nazism and quarrel

True, before that, another event had happened, which they do not like to remember today. 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, which the Nazis promoted, trying to "bring out" the superman, promised good profits to the manufacturers of sports equipment. After all, the superman also needs to put on something. Why not Gebrüder Dassler boots?

Only with the outbreak of World War II it turned out that Hitler's economy as a whole was, of course, a market economy. But when the Reich needs it, it is very planned. Part of the production capacity of their factories was taken for military needs, boots for soldiers were made, and Rudolph was drafted into the army. Although he had no desire to fight.

Sly Rudy, however, never got to the front. Invented night blindness for himself and remained at the headquarters as a clerk. But the Nazis were also rapidly losing the war. In 1945, Rudolph's nerves broke down and he fled from the advancing Reds. The Gestapo appreciated this step and arrested him for desertion. But he did not get to the concentration camp, because the Americans intervened, who released him, to immediately arrest him for ... cooperation with the Gestapo.

And this is where the fun begins. They say different things. There is a version that it was his brother Adolf who reported Rudolph to the occupation authorities, however, it is not clear from what reasons. In any case, while under arrest, Rudy poured slops on his brother to the fullest. During interrogations, he told the Americans that Adolf himself volunteered to make shoes for German soldiers, as he is a staunch Nazi and an enemy of the German people. It is still unknown whether he took revenge for the denunciation or, on the contrary, took the initiative. The Americans, too, were not at a loss, 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 ended. In 1948, their father died - the last person who could somehow reconcile them.

Adidas and puma

Herzogenaurach in the middle of the twentieth century is a small, intimate city, everyone knows each other. Therefore, one large shoe factory was a wonder. 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 footwear fans from one of the companies.

Soon Rudolph changed his name from Ruda to Puma and added the famous logo with, in fact, a puma. And Adolf added one letter to the name and one stripe to the logo, and this is how Adidas was born.

Interestingly, the first to succeed was the hardworking Adi, not the resourceful Rudy. By the 1960s, his company was a major supplier of sportswear, shoeing and dressing the German national football team. Puma remained a relatively small company for a long time and only closer to the death of Rudolph went uphill. However, he also had major contracts. It was Rudy who shod 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 there was a hole on Rudolf every time when I kicked him and said: 'Hey, this is my invention," he would now look like Swiss cheese. "

Legend

Rudolph died in 1974 from lung cancer. Adolf did not attend 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 forgave his brother, but he would not come either. The official press release looked sparse: "The Adolf Dassler family would not like to give any comments 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 already belong to completely different people who are not even relatives of the Dasslers.

80 years ago, in the German town of Herzogenaurach, there was a family quarrel, thanks to which two iconic sports brands arose - adidas and Puma. The very case when "misfortune helped."

Not everyone knows that the founders of the famous brands adidas and Puma - Rudolph and Adolf Dassler - are siblings. Having fought back in the First World War, they decided to establish a shoe production. Since their father was a shoemaker, this is not surprising.
Surprisingly, the brothers decided to make only sports shoes: in 1924, a crisis raged in Germany, the country 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. Rudolph was a passionate seller and easy to find customers.
When Hitler came to power in 1933, this opened up new opportunities for the Dassler business: the National Socialists spent a lot of money on sports and believed that the 1936 home Olympics 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 - fiercely swore.
The Dasslers were saved from a total quarrel only by a common goal - to find an athlete who would “shoot” at the Olympics and make a good advertisement for the company. Adolph 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.
- The spikes turned the shoe business upside down. 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 fact that in a year the Dasslers earned an astonishing amount - 400 thousand marks! - and purchased a new production building. But their plans were destroyed by the Second World War.
In 1938, the Dasslers were called up again, and then sent to the front. The factory was taken away to make weapons there. However, Adolf was soon allowed to return to produce footwear for the soldiers. At this time, Rudolph continued his service, and when he learned 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.
“Rudolph was again less fortunate than his brother: because of his connections with the Gestapo, he was sent to an internment camp,” notes Smith.
Rudolph was kept there for almost a year. At this time, the firm, under the leadership of Adolf, was fulfilling orders from 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 located 500 meters from each other, and each strived to become more popular. It was good for the sport. But not family relations- the brothers never reconciled.

Numbers $ 10,000

Adolf (adidas) has always been 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 (against 269 million euros for Puma).

Rudolf Dassler(German Rudolf Dassler; March 26, 1898, Herzogenaurach, - October 27, 1974, ibid.) - German businessman. Founder of Puma sporting goods firm, older brother of Adidas founder Adolf Dassler.

Biography

Born into the family of a shoemaker and a laundress, who by that time already had a son and a daughter (in 1900, the fourth child, Adolf, was born). As a child, together with his brothers, he delivered clean linen to his mother's customers, and later entered a shoe factory where his father worked. In August 1914, together with his older brother Fritz, he was drafted into the army and sent to the front in Belgium, where he spent the entire war.

After demobilization, he graduated from the police courses in Munich and entered the service in the district office. However, he soon got a job as a distributor of goods at a porcelain factory, and then at a Nuremberg leather trade company. In 1923, his younger brother Adolf invited him to his shoe company, which opened in 1920. As a shareholding in the capital, Rudolph contributed a typewriter.

On July 1, 1924, Rudolph and Adolf officially opened the Gebrder Dassler shoe company, which became very successful. Adolph was in charge of production and Rudolph was in charge of sales.

On May 6, 1928, Rudolph married eighteen-year-old Friedl Strasser. On September 15, 1929, their son Armin was born.

However, after the 1936 Summer Olympics (in which the world record runner Jesse Owens competed in Dassler spikes), disagreements arose between Rudolph and Adolf - Rudolph was negative about Adolph's constant improvement of already commercially successful models, and Adolf was annoyed by being overly arrogant and noisy behavior of Rudolph. Also, the reason for the disagreement was political views - Rudolph never criticized the Nazis, and Adolph dared not to obey their demands.

In July 1939, a son, Gerd, was born to Rudolf and Friedl.

With the outbreak of war, relations between the brothers deteriorated even more, which was facilitated by the participation of their wives in clashes between them. In March 1943, as part of the "total mobilization", Rudolph was drafted into military service and sent to Glauchau, and in April he was assigned to a customs post in the city of Tushin, where, citing imaginary night blindness, he received a position in a typing bureau. In January 1945, he fled from the advancing Red Army back to Herzogenaurach. In April, he was arrested by the Gestapo for desertion because he did not appear when summoned by the SD. During transportation to the Dachau concentration camp, he was freed by American soldiers. But on July 25, he was arrested by the occupation authorities for collaborating with the Gestapo and sent to the American internment camp in Hammelburg. At the same time, the Americans told him that he was arrested on a denunciation, in which Rudolph suspected Adolf.

However, on July 31, 1946, Rudolph was released as not posing a threat to security. Not long before that, the denazification procedure began against Adolf, and after his release from the camp, Rudolph was interrogated in this case. During interrogation, he said that on the initiative of Adolf, the production of military products was organized at the factory, and Adolf himself spoke to workers with political speeches. As a result, the investigation recognized Adolf as "the accused", after which the brothers decided to divide the enterprise as soon as possible, and in April 1948 they finally parted. Their new firms were located on different banks of the Aurach, which flows through the Herzogenaurach. The result is a unique situation in which the headquarters of the two largest sporting goods manufacturers are located a few hundred meters from each other.

At first, Rudolph registered his company under the name Ruda (the first syllables of the name "Rudolf Dassler"), but in October 1948 he changed it due to dissonance to Puma (in the film "Duel of the Brothers. The Story of Adidas and Puma" "- the nickname of Rudolph in his youth due to numerous love affairs).

July 4, 2014, 12:15 pm

Each great history there is a beginning

Slogan: Impossible is Nothing

Brand history Adidas started 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 outfit. The brothers Adolph and Rudolf Dassler were an extremely successful pair of leaders. Rudolph was an excellent manager, he was eager to expand the business and forge new connections. Adolf, a sports fanatic and football player, was interested in the creation of sports shoes from his youth, was an excellent engineer, and it was he who owned everything best ideas companies. Years passed, company Dassler flourished.

The year 1933 became 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 bet on a new leader and join the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party). They see bright prospects for the company in the 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 unleashing 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 even was in the Gestapo. The same rumors insist that at the end of the war, during the investigation conducted by the American military, Adolf Dassler actively participated in the process of exposing and accusing his own brother, a denunciation was written on his behalf accusing Rudolf Dassler of participating in the activities of the Gestapo. Reverse accusations and mutual attacks followed. You can read more about all these events in the book Barbara Smith "Three Stripes Versus 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. Competitive companies appear Addas, now known as Adidas, and Ruda, today - Puma... It is also noteworthy that none of the brothers wanted to leave their hometown of Herzogenaurach and start their business from scratch. The company was physically divided into two halves, along with the company, the town in which the factory was based was split. The split was the river, dividing the city into two parts - it began to develop on one bank and to this day it is developing successfully Adidas, on another - Puma.

The next year, 1949, Adi Dassler officially registers three stripes - the symbol of the company Adidas... Symbolizing the upward movement of three steps, the Adidas sign 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 trefoil appeared. The shamrock is now 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, the first step was not taken, the brothers never saw each other. Rudolf Dassler died in 1974, four years later his brother also dies, brothers are buried in his hometown of Herzogenauer. Their graves are at opposite ends of the small town cemetery.

After the death of Adi Dassler in 1978, the company passes to his widow Katharina and later to his son Horst Dassler. Interesting that Horst Dassler within the company Adidas Franсe, which he managed, created another brand Arena which manufactures swimwear and, in turn, competes with both Adidas and Puma. In 1972, at the Munich Summer Olympics, Horst witnessed a historic triumph Mark Spitz(Mark Spitz) is a swimmer who has 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 is Spitz could inspire millions of people around the world to swim, Dassler immediately began planning for a water sports company.

Control Adidas and Puma for a long time it 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 business and have long been joint stock companies.

Surely every person has in their wardrobe at least some thing from "Adidas", but, most likely, not everyone thought about who was its creator. The founders of this company are considered to be two brothers - Rudolf and Adolf Dassler.

Adolf, everyone called him Adi at home, was born in 1900 into an unprovable family in the town 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 Rudolph, went in for sports together and constantly competed with each other.

In 1914, when Rudolph was drafted into the army, Adolf began a fruitful study of his father's business. Football was gaining immense popularity at that time, and Adi played it with pleasure.

It was post-war time with devastation in the country, and his parents lost their jobs. For two whole years they worked part-time to feed their children and survive. But they still decide to take a serious step and open their own business - the production of shoes. In the former laundry, it was decided to open its own workshop, where sleeping slippers were originally sewn, then gymnastic slippers. But Adolf really wanted to make shoes for athletes.

In 1924, Rudolf expressed a desire to work with his brother, and they named the company Gebrüder Dassler. Adolph was in charge of the production process and Rudolph 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. Rudolph went to a local blacksmith and forged a partnership with him. This football shoe has proven itself well, and the young company has managed to expand its turnover. The company was already producing more than 100 pairs a day 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 of the 1928 Olympics. All German athletes have already worn Dassler shoes. The production increased every day, more than 1,000 pairs per day were already being produced. 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 design and manufacture sports equipment for the United States. In wartime, the business suffered quite badly, so we had to start practically 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 disintegrated, the brothers split into two different companies. And so it happened that Adolph named his company Addas, which will later be known as Adidas, and Rudolph created the Puma company. There was peace in the brothers' relationship, but the relationship between the companies somehow did not work out. The employees constantly competed and did not greet each other even when they met.

In 1954, Adidas appeared in Switzerland for the FIFA World Cup. Towards the end of the 50s, Adolf launched the production of various accessories and bags, and later - sports suits 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, with the brightest athletes in the lead role.

Robert Louis-Dreyfus

In 1978, Adolf Dasler left the world and was replaced by his wife Katarina. 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 manage the company, but they did not turn out to be very good leaders, since they constantly quarreled among themselves.

In 1989, Adolphe's daughters decided to sell 80% of the company to the French entrepreneur Bernard Tapie. Tapi wanted to raise the company high, but nothing came of it. In 1993, he decided to sell the Adidas to his friend Robert Louis-Dreyfus. Each time sales grew, new developments appeared in the field of the footwear industry, and the company climbed 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 an early age and knew everything about Adidas.

Since then, Herbert has made a significant contribution to production, developing new shoe models, introducing Newest technologies... Now the company has taken a leading position and stood in the ranks of the first among such famous brands as Nike and Puma.