Title: Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers Who Founded
Adidas and Puma and the Family Feud That Forever Changed the Business of Sports
Author:
Barbara Smit
Publisher: Harper Perennial
The first thing that drew me to this book was
the cover. It displays a picture of an
Adidas Gazelle sneaker in marine blue suede with white leather highlights and a
pair of Puma Suede sneakers in red ribbon suede with white highlights. I have been buying various types of Adidas
and Puma’s for many years now and so I instantly wanted to know what this book
had to say about them. This book tells
the story of the sneaker war that developed between the sneaker brands Adidas
and Puma. The most interesting part of
these two brands is that the creators are both brothers, Adolf and Rudolf
Dassler. The book starts off by telling
the story of how the Dassler family lived in the small German town of
Herzogenaurach, when suddenly both brothers were called to join the First World
War. When they returned, Adolf or “Adi”
decided to build a small shoe production company using debris from what the
army had left behind. Three years later
in 1923 his older brother Rudolf decided to join him in his production and form
Gebrüder Dassler. Adi would design and
create the shoes, while Rudolf would handle the business side of the company.
Unfortunately over
the years the Nazi movement started to grow and their success came from
supplying the army with spikes. During
this time Adi got married to a girl named Käthe, and Rudolf married a girl
named Friedl. Eventually the Nazi
movement, which both brothers did not embrace with warmth, forced them to join
the war again. However, Adi was released
early while Rudolf was forced to stay behind causing him to believe that Adi
along with Käthe (who he believed was hostile towards him) were trying to oust
him from the shoe company. After the war
the years that followed contained a series of misunderstandings, deceptions,
and accusations that created animosity resulting in both brothers having to
split the company. Their feud also
divided Herzogenaurach in two by placing family members and employees against
each other. At one end Adi decided to
name his shoe company Adidas, combining his name and surname together. At the other end Rudolf also wanted to name
his company using a combination of his name (Ruda) however he settled on the
name Puma instead.
In order to
distinguish itself as a quality made brand, Adi decided to add three white
stripes to his shoes, which not only acted as a logo but also strengthen the
sides of the shoes. Rudolf also placed a
logo on his shoes; a stripe (Formstripe) that ran across the shoe and would
become thinner towards the heel.
Although initially Puma sales rose rapidly, what ultimately gave Adidas
the advantage was Adi’s friendship with Sepp Herberger, Germany’s national football
coach. This friendship allowed Adi to
supply the German national team with Adidas cleats for the 1954 World Cup. Referred to as “The Miracle of Bern” Germany
went on to win the World Cup, and provided the world a chance to see Adidas. Observing the power that an athlete wearing a
particular shoe could have for sales of a shoe, both Adi and Rudolf began a
contest to see who could get more athletes wearing their shoes. But as both Adi and Rudolf became older,
their son’s took over the struggle to outwit the other. Horst Dassler the son of Adi took over for
his father, while Armin Dassler the son of Rudolf partially took over for his
father. Their competition would be most
extreme in the Olympics and World Cup, where they would try to bamboozle each
other, and even illegally pay athletes to wear their shoes.
As both these
companies grew bigger and more successful, their feud would not allow them to
concentrate on more important issues.
Both of them suffered from various issues such as; not being able to
deliver their products on time, focusing too much on the European market while ignoring
the American, manufacturing their products in Europe, expanding their
distribution rights uncoordinatedly, over spending on endorsements, being too
arrogant to listen to their customer’s feedback, and brushing off competition
from smaller shoe companies such as Blue Ribbon Sports. Ignoring all these issues ultimately caught
up with them in the mid 80’s when Blue Ribbon Sports who would become Nike,
would take away the American sneaker market from Adidas. By the time Horst realized that Adidas sales
were dropping because of Nike and Reebok, it was too late to do anything. Although he did strike back at Nike
(promoting Adidas with Run DMC), it wasn’t enough to topple them. Adidas and Puma’s decent caused each Dassler
family to face bankruptcy offering them no choice but to sell off their
companies.
The part of this book
that I really enjoyed was when it spoke about the work that Peter Moore and Rob
Strasser had done for Adidas. Both Moore
and Strasser had just left Nike when they joined Adidas. They were very talented because they had
helped launch Nike Air and Air Jordan when they worked for Nike. As soon as they came over to Adidas they
demonstrated their talents by launching new athletic concepts such as
Equipment, creating a new logo, and trying to organize Adidas America. Lamentably this was short lived because in
1993 Rob Strasser died from a heart attack.
Fortunately over the years, both Puma and Adidas have been able to stay
afloat and regain some control of the sports wear market. Puma has found success by mixing sports wear
with high fashion, and investing in Formula One. Adidas has found success by buying out
Reebok, getting both the NFL and NBA license, and attainting endorsement deals
with superstars such as David Beckham. I
really enjoyed this book because it pointed out the problems that caused the
downfall of Adidas and Puma. It also
serves as a great warning to Nike, that history can repeat itself if they
follow the same mistakes that Adidas and Puma did.
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Sneaker-Wars-Brothers-Founded-Business/dp/B002UXS09I/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284776154&sr=1-1
