Adolf "Adi" Dassler was the founder of the German sportswear company Adidas, and the younger brother of Rudolf Dassler, founder of Puma.
Background
Born in the Franconian town of Herzogenaurach and trained as a cobbler, Adi Dassler started to produce his own sports shoes in his mother"s laundry room after his return from the First World War. His father, Christoph, who worked in a shoe factory, and the Zehlein brothers, who produced the spikes for track shoes in their smithy, supported Dassler in starting his own business.
Career
At the 1928 Olympics, Dassler equipped many athletes, laying the foundation for the international expansion of the company. Rudolf was drafted, and later captured, while Adi stayed behind to produce boots for the Wehrmacht and then broke away from the Nazi Party. By 1948, the rift between the brothers widened.
Rudolf left the company to found Puma on the other side of town (across the Aurach River), and Adolf Dassler renamed the company Adidas after his own nickname (Adi Dassler).
In 1973, Adolf Dassler"s son Horst Dassler founded Arena, a producer of swimming equipment. Horst died nine years later, in 1987.
Adidas was transformed into a private limited company in 1989, but remained family property until its IPO in 1995. In 2006, a sculpture of Dassler was unveiled in the Adi Dassler Stadium in Herzogenaurauch.
lieutenant was created by the artist Josef Tabachnyk.
Politics
With the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, both Dassler brothers joined the Nazi Party, with Rudolf reputed as being the more ardent National Socialist.