Translated from the original Spanish article. Read in Spanish
Adidas and Puma have been rivals for more than seventy years. But they were founded by two brothers who lived in the same house… and who ended up not speaking until they died.
This is the story of the family feud that split a town in two.
Shoes in the laundry room
In the 1920s, in Herzogenaurach, a small town in Germany, Adolf Dassler, whom everyone called Adi, started making sports shoes in his mother's laundry room.
Adi was the inventor: quiet and obsessed with details. His older brother, Rudolf, was the salesman: outgoing and good at business.
In 1924 they founded the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory together.
Jesse Owens and the four medals
In 1936 they achieved something huge: Adi persuaded American athlete Jesse Owens to wear their shoes at the Berlin Olympics. Owens won four gold medals.
War inside the house
But at home, things were going badly. The two brothers lived with their families under the same roof, and the fights between them and their wives grew more and more intense.
World War II made everything worse. Both had been members of the Nazi party, and after the war they accused each other. Rudolf spent about a year in detention and, according to several accounts, blamed his brother.
1948: the break
In 1948, the partnership broke up for good.
Rudolf moved to the other side of the Aurach river and founded his own company. He first called it Ruda, for Rudolf Dassler, and months later renamed it: Puma.
Adi kept the original factory, and in 1949 registered his with his nickname and surname: Adi Dassler. Adidas.
Adidas comes from "Adi Dassler". Puma was first called "Ruda", for Rudolf Dassler.
The town of bent necks
The feud didn't stay within the family. Adidas and Puma were the town's biggest employers, and every resident had to pick a side. There were Adidas bars, bakeries and barbershops, and Puma ones.
Before talking to someone, people looked at what shoes they were wearing. That's why Herzogenaurach was nicknamed "the town of bent necks".
The rivalry on the pitch
The rivalry was also played out on the pitch. At the 1954 World Cup, Germany played the final in Adidas boots with interchangeable studs, and beat Hungary in the rain. Note: according to the German Patent Office, Adi Dassler didn't invent screw-in studs, but the team did play the final with them.
Apart even in the cemetery
Rudolf died in 1974 and Adi in 1978. They never reconciled, and they're buried at opposite ends of the town cemetery.
It took more than sixty years for a gesture of peace: in 2009, Adidas and Puma employees played a friendly football match together.
Today
Today Adidas sells about 25 billion euros a year, and Puma more than 7 billion. And both still have their headquarters in the same town.
Two brothers who couldn't stand each other created, without meaning to, the most famous rivalry in sports.
This story is also a video
We tell it in a short video on our channel (in Spanish). Subscribe: there's a new story every week.
Watch the video on YouTubeWhich side of the river would you be on: Adidas or Puma?
Tell us in the comments on the video.
Sources (in Spanish)
- Origen de la empresa, separación de 1948, el río Aurach, el «pueblo de los cuellos doblados», las tumbas y el partido de 2009: Wikipedia (Dassler brothers feud), History.com y HowStuffWorks.
- Jesse Owens en Berlín 1936: Wikipedia (Adolf Dassler, Adidas) y Adi & Käthe Dassler Memorial Stiftung.
- Nombre «Ruda» antes de Puma: Wikipedia (Puma).
- Mundial de 1954 y los tacos cambiables: Oficina Alemana de Patentes y Marcas (DPMA).
- Ventas de 2025: Adidas (unos 24.800 millones de euros) vía World Footwear y Modaes; Puma (unos 7.296 millones de euros), informe anual de Puma 2025.
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