The Adidas and Puma sportswear companies share differing sides of the same river in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria. Their location in that bucolic hamlet is anything but a coincidence:
Adi and Rudolf Dassler started making sports shoes together in their mother’s wash-room in the 1920s.
They fell out during World War II, probably over political differences, and founded firms on either side of a river in southern Germany.
On Monday 21 September, employees of both companies will shake hands and then play a football match.
It is a big deal in the cobblestoned Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach, where two of the world’s largest sportswear companies are based.
Adolf (Adi) Dassler and his brother Rudolf worked together until the Second World War, with both of them joining the Nazi Party. Rudi was apparently the more fervent of the two, was captured and suspected of being a member of Hitler’s SS. Rudi suspected Adi of diming him out to the Allies, the two fell out and never spoke to each other again until the day they died.
They are both buried in the same cemetery at Herzogenaurach. On opposite sides.
Geez. I was always a Puma guy. The story I had always heard was that the brothers just fell out with each other. I always saw Puma as the underdog. Plus I thought they made better shoes, at least for socccer.
here is a link to a book that was published a couple of years ago about them
http://www.amazon.com/Sneaker-Wars-Brothers-Founded-Business/dp/0061246573/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253291123&sr=8-1
I did know this from my college swimming coach, a man who was / is married to a German woman. Sehr interessant, nicht va? Finally, something of use from college.
I read a story a few months ago how contractors working (say painters) at adidas would show up wearing pumas, which would be unacceptable and the company would get them properly outfitted in adidas gear.
3 months later they’re working @ puma in their adidas…. same thing happens. Score!
wash rinse and repeat……
Reminds me of a story where big wigs from Pepsi are visiting a possible new IT vendor for new system rollout worldwide. After being shown to the conference room somebody from the vendor offers refreshments by asking if anybody would like a Coke….
They got up and left.
OldT6/
Talk about not knowing which side your bread is buttered on, how about all those workers parking lots at GM, Chrysler & Ford filled w. foreign cars? Or the fact that Obamas’ “Car Czar” and his staff only drive two “Big Three”-made cars out of total of 14?
In 1978 I was working at GM (DDA division). Bought a Honda Accord because I wanted to spend my money wisely. The UAW members made it clear to me that if wanted to keep my car in one piece I had better park it off-site.
This after I personally witnessed a UAW line worker sabotaging a production line on Friday because he wanted to leave early. GM fired him that day, the UAW had him reinstated on Monday.
The linguistic problem is, that to Texans, the preferred word, used preferably to “pop” or “soda”, is “Coke”. Typical question — “Y’all want some Cokes?” “Yea, get me a Dr. Pepper.” “I’ll have a Sprite.” And so on. I get the sensitivity issue, but I’ll bet the speaker had no thought there was a particular brand implied.
Of course, if he were in heaven, he would have offered a Barq’s, right VX? And bags of Zapp’s for all!
We always said “soda,” or “soda water” when I lived in Sam Antone. That was ‘69-’71.
Well, then you could clearly be identified as a non-native.
“Back in the day” circa HS days 1958-62, Puma was THE track shoe par excellence–dominated the sport.
IIRC Adidas didn’t hit it big in the US until the 70s, while Puma stalled out and declined–seemed to me it never really caught the wave of the explosive use of such footwear for the general public that Nike pioneered in the 70s. (FWIW, According to SWPL “New Balance” is the shoe of choice for the 10-toed cognesetti among us–guess this fossil will be banned from the club–I’m an Asics white w. blue or blue & orange trim & W-Mart Dr Scholls “all-whites” w. turquoise trim man, myself) But Puma DOES seem to be making a comeback in the “forward-fashion” shoe. My son owns a snazzy pair of black w. subtle silver & lime green trim that look OUTSTANDING for casual out-on-the-town night-wear.
I heard the story when I lived in Germany ‘66-’69, but forgot all about it. Haven’t heard it since, until I saw it today.
The one thing that I learned about Adidas in college was what it stood for:
All Day I Dream About Sex!
They made might fine tennis shoes and other garb that our team adopted as their official uniforms.
Peter Gunn/
UR a racket-baller, eh? Where’d you play? I played at LSU and my father was a Head Coach at a small compass school in the Mid-west. (He once uttered one of the worst puns EVER MADE by any coach in history one day to his squad back in the late 40s-early 50s. He held ye old “racquet” up, pointed to it’s face and said: “Men, it takes GUTS to play this game!” (Groan….you’ve got to go some to top that!) In my day it was nothing but Chuck Taylor Hi-tops for BB and low-cuts for tennis. (Had the blue-slotted soles) I later transitioned to Tretorns when I went to the UK in 70s in the USAF (had tiny circular pattern soles and 1st shoe w, removable liners, IIRC) Later started wearing/testing out a variety of shoes when I came back to the US in mid-70s as that’s when the veritable explosion in shoe design/manufactures began. I’ve probably worn ‘em all (or at least half) at one time or another in the years since–including Adidas.
Adidas are the only ones that fit my small, but wide, foot properly. My piggies don’t like to be cramped. Interesting story.
I run in Brooks myself, but I’ve been telling my kids for years that Adidas was named for two brothers, whose nicknames were “Adi” and “Das.” Guess I didn’t have it quite right.
I’ll have to ask our German kids if they know this story. Our first exchange student, from 6 years ago, is coming back to visit us in November.