Brotherly Breakdown I

Brothers Dassler

Brothers Rudolf and Adolf Dassler were born in 1898 and 1900, respectively, in the Franconian town of Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. They were the youngest two of four children born to Christoph and Pauline Dassler.

Only 12 miles from the center of much larger Nuremberg (Nürnberg), near the confluence of the Regnitz River and what would one day become the Main-Danube canal, little Herzogenaurach was then home to fewer than 4,000 residents.  Many labored in the town’s 112 shoe-making enterprises.  Yes, that’s an astounding number. Among them was their father, Christoph.  Through the boys’ youth they absorbed much about the industry from him.

They also watched, and later helped, their mother set up and run a laundry business from the family home.  The shoe business and the entrepreneurial spirit was “in their blood.”

Both brothers served in the Great War to end all wars – fighting in Flanders’ bloody and muddy trenches.  Adi’s service came after completing a four-year apprenticeship in a bakery, which he loathed.

In 1919 the brothers joined forces and began making sneakers in the family home, at Am Hirtengraben 12, convincing Pauline to share business quarters in the house.  Shoes were made in the family’s one bathroom.  Not long after, Adi convinced his parents to give up on the laundry business and go all-family all-in on shoes.

But Rudi was set on being a policeman, a fancy, one supposes, from the war. He left shoe making and struck out into law enforcement.  Adi (“AH-dee”, short for Adolf) remained in the shoe business.

From youth Adi had been an avid sportsman, participating in a wide variety of sports, most notably track and soccer (Fußball).  He was soon pursuing the athletic shoe market, as well as sandals.

Beginning in 1920 a severe economic crisis walloped Germany.  Clever Adi managed to survive. For example, electric power was inconsistent in these hard times, so  Adi invented his own electric power generator, hooking a dynamo to a bicycle, which powered the mills.  (It was a small operation).

By 1923 older brother Rudi was getting burned out as a policeman. One suspects due to low pay and long stressful hours.  Typical of the times. Adi brought him into the business as a partner, which was renamed The Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory (Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik), or Geda, for short.

Geda survived the crisis and steadily grew, with 12 employees in 1927.  It pioneered the spiked athletic shoe: cleats.  In 1928  Germans (Georg Lammers, Lina Radke & Helene Schmidt) won medals (one each for bronze, silver and gold) at the Amsterdam Olympics wearing Geda shoes. Radke set a record in the 800m and was the first to win an event with Dassler cleated shoes. At the 1932 games, in Los Angeles, another German sprinter, Arthur Jonath, earned two medals with Dassler shoes. ^[1]

Dassler shoes were in demand, especially for sports, and the future looked bright.  But then, 1933 happened.  Hitler took power and the Dasslers joined the Nazi party.  [My estimation is that this was more or less mandatory in order to stay in business, at least at first. Kind of like Oskar Schindler. IMO].

Party membership didn’t stop them from providing track shoes to African-American sprinter Jesse Owens, who shocked the world by winning four gold medals in Dassler cleats at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It was a marketing coup, and the Dassler brothers’ business surged.

During World War II, though, the shoe business went on pause: In 1943, the Nazi regime ordered that Herzogenaurach’s shoe factories be repurposed to build weapons for the war. After re-tooling, in 1944, Geda’s factory began rolling out a deadly new anti-tank rocket-launcher, the bazooka. Many of their workers were forced laborers relocated from Nazi-occupied countries.

US troops reached Herzogenaurach in April, 1945. They reportedly prepared to destroy the Geda bazooka factory until Pauline convinced them that they only wanted to make shoes. A US base was soon installed at Herzogenaurach’s airport, and when the American troops realized that Geda had made Jesse Owens’ shoes, they began buying them in droves.  They had penetrated the huge American market.

While the company’s fortunes were improving, a row developed between the brothers. Among several, there are two likely theories. One, that Adolf tried convincing Allied troops to arrest his brother so he could take control of the business.  And two, more likely to me, is that Rudi had become, and remained, too “Nazi” for Adi. Perhaps both, as Adi could have been put-off by Rudi’s deep Nazification.

A third “story” reports that during an air raid Adi and his family jumped into a shelter that Rudi and his were already occupying.  As they entered Rudi reportedly said “the dirty bastards are back again” – referring to the allied air forces.  Adi took this to mean his family.  It could be all 3.  Adi could’ve been already conditioned to expect this type of behavior, even if it wasn’t there.

In any case, neither felt they could ever trust the other again. It developed into a family feud, a schism that lasted their entire lives.

So bad was the split that their children grew up barely knowing of, and having no contact with, their uncle and cousins who lived just a stroll away.

Thus, in 1948, the brothers dissolved Geda. Some associates, at the time, reported that they’d never gotten along very well anyhow. They each then launched their own near identical company: Rudolf launched Puma; Adolf renamed Geda to Adidas.

(“Adi” is a nickname for Adolf; “das” is short for Dassler.  I learned from all this, then, that pronunciation should be with “a” as “ah”, not like the “a” in cat, and the final “s” is indeed pronounced as “s” and not a “z”).

Herzogenaurach is divided north-from-south by the Aurach river, which lazily wanders a few miles further east to meet the Regnitz. The original factory was near the family home not far north of the river.  As Adidas expanded, Adi moved his  operations on the south bank; Rudi’s Puma was on the north bank. The feud between the brothers soon came to characterize the town, with people belonging to either the Adidas or Puma camps. Herzogenaurach’s nickname became “the town of bent necks,” because of the residents’ practice of looking at each other’s shoes to determine allegiance. (Update: ^[2])

Early on Adidas jumped ahead. They’ve remained well ahead ever since. Maybe it’s because most of the sales and marketing staff went with Rudi’s Puma on Würtzburger Strasse, and the technicians, product developers and cobblers stayed with Adi and his Adidas brand on the south side. Adi retained two-thirds of all current Geda employees.  ^[3]

The brothers were known to hire away each other’s better employees. Disgruntled employees would sometimes wear the competitors’ shoes to the factory floor, a tacit act of defiance.

“When I started at Puma, you had a restaurant that was a Puma restaurant, an Adidas restaurant, a bakery,” a former Puma CEO said. “The town was literally divided. If you were working for the wrong company, you wouldn’t be served any food, you couldn’t buy anything. It was an odd experience.”

The rivalry between the brothers – and companies – never let up, although Adidas quickly took the lead, as mentioned.

In 1954, the West German football team wore a new type of Adidas shoe that was half the weight of other models and had removable and changeable spikes. They won that year’s World Cup in an exciting final, defeating heavily favored Hungary 3-2. The game was played in rain and mud; the Germans were able to change out their cleats at halftime to a more aggressive stud. This rocketed Adidas to further prominence.

The game was not without controversy that remains today.  That’s below. ^[4]

Adidas would also go on to pioneer the tracksuit, and its soccer balls have been used in every World Cup since they introduced the Telstar, in 1970.

Adidas and Puma have since become the world’s second and third largest sportswear brands, respectively (Nike is by far the first).

The family feuds are now over.  The brothers are long gone. Adolf died in 1978, Rudi in 1974.  Descendants from each now have no concern about which to support.  Frank Dassler, grandson of Rudi, who wore Pumas for decades, later worked as chief legal counsel for Adidas.  Both companies have since gone public and are no longer governed by the founding families.   The hatchet is buried, along with the brothers.

 

 

Joe Girard © 2024

Thank you for reading. As always, you can add yourself to the notification list for newly published material by clicking here . Or emailing joe@girardmeister.com

 

Many sources, just a few here

https://www.adidassler.org/en/life-and-work/chronicle

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/oct/19/rivalry-between-adidas-and-puma

https://www.dw.com/en/the-town-that-sibling-rivalry-built-and-divided/a-2074427

Notes

I skipped using the company logos, not sure if fair trade applies here.

Rudolf actually named one of his sons Gerd.  He originally copied his brother and named his company Ruda.  That was awkward and soon gave way to Puma.

Adidas was originally near the family home, east of Rudi’s Puma and north of the river.  It expanded rapidly and moved to a more spacious location south of the river.  Knowledge of the precise location seems to have been lost.

Footnotes:

[1] pictorial history of some Adidas track and sports shoes. https://www.designboom.com/design/adi-dasslers-first-shoes-an-exhibition-by-adidas/

[2] Update.  Since the original publication, I’ve found that they were probably not on opposite sides of the river.  The river splitting the city was just a metaphor of the split in loyalties.  As the business expanded, Geda moved to a larger building, near the family home on the north side, but not far from the river.  Rudi founded Puma on the north shore, west of the family home.  Adi stayed and Adidas stayed near the family home, but, as they expanded, moved to the northern end of the town.  HQ is at Adi-Dassler-Strasse 1.

[4] 1954 world Cup. Hosted by Switzerland.  Hungar was eavily favored. They had crushed Germany in the group stage, 8-3.
In the championship match, played in Bern, Hungary apparently scored the equalizer right near the final whistle, in the 87^th minute, but it was waived off for offside by the linesman.  Photo and video evidence suggests this was incorrect, but not conclusively.  After a minute of consultation, the head referee, who had originally signaled goal, agreed with his linesman, negating the goal.  A German player with a good view on the sideline confessed he thought this was an error.
Germany is also alleged to have injected its players with vitamin C at halftime, and some go further saying they also injected amphetamines.
Shortly afterward, many German players came down with jaundice – vitamin C is normally good for the liver, but over consumption affects liver chemistry and  its bilirubin, which can cause this outcome.

All observers agreed that the Germans played with as much pep in the second half as in the first, while the Hungarians, worn down by the weather and rugged play, did not.  A little chemical boost at half-time?

Until 1970, when FIFA adopted the bright white and black Adidas Telstar ball for the World Cup hosted in Mexico, official soccer balls were brown and made from stitched leather.  This was not good for poor conditions, as in 1954, for the ball was not sufficiently water resistant and it was difficult to see on a muddy wet pitch.  It wasn’t bright and contrasting, however for rain and mud: the white color was mostly for TV.  (Remember? Black and white TV, brown not so good, bright white with small black pentagons, better).

[3] Smit, Barbara.  The Enemy Brothers who Founded Adidas & Puma and the Family Feud that forever change the Business of sport.  (p31)