Adidas vs The Dassler Brothers…
Feb 17th, 2008 by Simon
This new spot from Adidas retells the history of Adidas and it’s founder, Adi Dassler. (Note: Actually pronounced ‘Add-Eee. Dasss-Lurrr’ hence the European pronunciation of the brand name!)
However, it misses out a key part of the history. Because, originally, it wasn’t just Adi (who’s real name was Adolf, btw) - he had a brother called Rudolf - and they made boots together. They operated as the ‘Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory’ in the little town of Herzogenaurach.
Unfortunately, in the late 30’s/early 40’s they fell out and there has been a feud ever since. They both build factories in the same village, but it’s now split - Puma (Rudolf’s company) and Adidas (Adi’s company) operate from two different ends of the village - with people working for one or the other and shops selling one or the other.
It’s a peculiar town for it’s split and the feud seems to live on to this day. Read this article if you want a bit more info…
All of that aside, it’s a sweet little spot - here’s the full two and half minute version…
Or, for the less patient, here’s the 60 second version that aired on TV…