#109 Adi Dassler (Adidas)

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets. They're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high. So I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today. And I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. At a time when money and sports were still two separate worlds, the most admired athletes and soccer players enjoyed dropping by in the small Bavarian town for a chat with Adi Dassler, the ingenious German cobbler behind Adidas.
On the other side of the small river that runs through the town, the guests were just as impressive. Just after the war, Rudolf Dassler had walked over after a blazing fight with his brother Adi and set up Puma, a competing brand. Their feud shaped the modern sports business, giving rise to corruption and ever-increasing financial stakes. For several decades, the bickering Dassler brothers ruled over the sports business from their medieval village. Their shoes featured in nearly all the emblematic pictures of sports history.
The Americans started hijacking the business in the 80s, when the sons of Adi and Rudolph were spending most of their time fighting each other. Distracted by their own devious rivalry, the two Dassler cousins ignored the rise of the hard-hitting American upstart. Once it had thrashed Adidas and Puma in the United States, Nike set out to capture the European sports business.
Okay, so that's an excerpt from the beginning of the book, from the book that I read this week and the one I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Sneaker Wars, The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and the Family Feud That Forever Changed the Business of Sports, and it was written by Barbara Smit.
The reason I started with that excerpt, I'm still not sure what I'm going to name this podcast, because most of what I personally enjoyed and what I want to focus on is Adi Dassler, but there's a lot of just interesting things about the family. So I have a feeling like the podcast will just be called The Dassler Family, because there is a bunch of notes and highlights I have regarding how they ran their business that it feels interesting. But the reason I bring that up is because this book, I'm going to read a couple of like, you know, the blurbs on the front and back cover. It was not at all. When I picked that up and started reading it, I had one image in my mind of what I thought I was going to learn, like specifically the founding of Adidas and Puma. And there's just so much more to this book. So it says, this is from the Washington Post, it says, Smit gets behind the business proposals, marketing plans and constant dollar signs to focus on the human aspects of how these warring brands succeeded and why they faded. That's also why I wanted to, I'm going to talk a lot about, not a lot, but a good amount about Nike as well and the role that Phil Knight and Nike played in that. It is that human component that makes Sneaker Wars read like a modern cautionary tale for those apt to turn big business into the most dangerous sports. And in the beginning it says, this is from the Wall Street Journal, it says, a book you'll read at a sprint, an anecdote rich history of competition, commercialism and corruption. So that gives you a good idea. We're going to learn a lot more than just about the two individuals behind Adidas and Puma. Before I get there though, I want to start with the early life.