Research Paper

Adolf Dassler

Introduction

In the days of ancient Rome, people ran barefoot. Even today, many African tribes run miles and miles without shoes. But for the rest of us, we need something to protect our feet. Luckily, a man named Adolf Dassler came to our rescue.

Before Adidas

Adidas was founded by Adolf Dassler, nicknamed “Adi”. Before becoming a big businessman, he and his brother just started making sports shoes in their mother’s laundry room in the 1920s after World War I. It became known as the Dassler’s Brothers Sport Shoe Factory. At an early start of their business, they learned that a gold medal would have an influence on their shoe factory. The Dassler benefited from the advancement of spiked running shoes for several athletic events. In 1936, the Dassler convinced runner Jesse Owens to wear their spikes for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Thanks to Owens’s success of winning four gold medals while wearing the Dasslers’ shoes. After Owens' success, their business exploded while they were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes each year before World War II (Chronicle and Biography of Adi and Kathe Dassler).

Adolf Dassler was born on November 3, 1900, the fourth child of Christoph and Pauline Dassler 1900. Because his father worked at a shoe factory, Adolf was able to obtain insight into manners at the shoe factory. When Adolf completed high school, his father wanted him to become a baker. However Adolf couldn't seem to see his future working at a bakery, he had his heart revolved around sports (Chronicle and Biography of Adi and Kathe Dassler).

Dassler’s Brothers’ Sport Shoe factory was founded by Adolf Dassler, but later on, his brother, Rudolf Dassler, decided to join the factory as a salesman when his brother brought him to his small shoe business. The two brothers were perfect for each other. Adolf was more of a quiet inventor while Rodolf was a socializing marketer (Chronicle and Biography of Adi and Kathe Dassler).

Adidas

The two brothers made the decision of going their separate ways, for the consequences the brothers have had over the years. The company was in danger since the brothers have different personalities and different views of the company. After going their separate ways, they never communicated with each other again. When they went their separate ways, Rodolph had established a new company called” Puma”. Adi was able to keep the factory beside the train station. Many of the employees chose to stay and work for Adi because they were occupied with the production (Chronicle and Biography of Adi and Kathe Dassler).

Adolf Dassler started making shoes in 1924, named his company in 1949, started using the three-stripes on his shoes in 1967, and finally made his Adidas’s logo in 1971. Adidas’s famous logo was established when Adidas expanded into clothing marketing. The logo of the three-leaf shape was meant to represent the main landmasses of the Americas, Europe and Africa, and Asia respectively. While the trefoil later became a powerful symbol, it's the logo that has been scored into cultural awareness. Thanks to the trefoil logo, the company was no longer the preserve of athletes (How the Adidas Logo Earned its Stripes).

Thanks to the practical success, Adolf attended and guided the German National Football Team. Since Adolf is a “National Shoemaker”, he listened to the players’ shoe woes and suggested them ahead of each game. The German players were able to gain an advantage thanks to an adjustment that Adolf made of screwing the longer studs onto the players’ shoes which helped better traction the muddy, rain-soaked ground. The short studs that were used by the Hungarians clung the dirt and were already heavy shoes while the long studs that the Germans used helped clean it from the turf. Germany had a 3 to 2 victory which went down in history. Adidas had an ultimate breakthrough (Chronicle and Biography of Adi and Kathe Dassler).

Products

The Adidas Superstar is a well known that has influenced modern-day sneaker shoes. The Superstar is one of the greatest shoes made by Adidas. It is also nicknamed "Shell Toes", "Shell Shoe", or "Shell Tops" because of its rubber toe box. This amazing shoe was manufactured in 1969. The Superstar shoe was originally supposed to be used to play basketball. However, things started changing for the Superstar shoe within the 1980s. Also, there was a group called the Hip Hop Run DMC, and they loved their Superstars so much that they wrote a song known as "My Adidas." After that song came out, everyone started wearing these Hip Hop shoes for fashion instead of basketball (Adidas Superstar).

Adidas began making soccer balls in 1963. In 1970, Adidas made the first official ball for the Mexico World Cup. He named the ball the “Telstar” after the Telstar communications satellite that was designed like a sphere and has black solar panels. The Telstar maintains 32 black and white panels. The panels on the soccer ball allowed the people at home to actually see the ball on the television since there was only black and white-colored television (Garber).

Earlier before the side became a high fashion shoe, the side was manufactured by Adidas as easy to wear, simple footwear. Adidas invented the famous “Adilette” slide since the German soccer team wanted a style shoe that could be worn in the showers and changing room. The Adilette was designed for protection and easy accessibility. The polo slide is made from a waterproof polyurethane-coated synthetic upper and outsole. It was brought to market in 1972 and was known to the world as the athletes’ preferred shower shoe. And now, it’s a comfortable, well-known shoe instead of just a shower shoe (Cheng).

Rivalry

The brothers' company was a success. They would have gone through the ceilings, unfortunately, World War II happened. Later on, when Rudolf returned from the war followed by one year of imprisonment, the brother’s shoe production started again. No one really knows what happened to the Dassler brothers, not even their grandchildren know what happened between them. However, some people have theories of what has occurred to the brothers. One theory is that when Rudolf fled the front in 1945, Adolf had given the U.S. information about Rudolf in order to get him out of the way, and he was arrested on his way back. Another theory is that Adolf was jealous of his brother since it was rumored that something had happened between Rudolf and Kathe (Adolf’s wife), and Rudolf was known as a womanizer. Whatever happened with Adolf and Rudolf made them go their separate ways and an extreme rivalry that they were buried on the opposite ends of the town’s cemetery (Schwär).

The rivalry had affected the family, but it had also affected the whole town. Today in Herzogenaurach, one person from the family was working for one of the two companies or wearing one of the companies. People would be dressed from head to toe with either Adidas or Puma, however, rarely seen combined. The Mayor German Hacker had even said, “back in his generation if someone comes in through the door, your gaze still wanders down to their shoes.” Even the mayor was affected by the rivalry between the companies. He originally came from a Puma family since his aunt worked as a Puma veteran, and as a child, he would wear Puma clothes. However, now as mayor, he wears both brands on casual occasions, so he doesn’t have to pick aside. He had even gone far out when the two companies were having their friendly match, he wore Adidas on the right and Puma on the left (Schwär).

Conclusion

Your conclusion could be about how Adidas continues to make advances in the athletic shoe market. You don’t have to go into a lot of detail, but I found this article: https://www.gq.com/story/adidas-boost-history-yeezy-sneakers

In conclusion, Adidas

Works Cited

“Adidas Superstar.” SneakerFiles, 2 Mar. 2020, www.snerakerfiles.com/adidas/adidas-superstar/.

Cheng, Andrea. “The History of Pool Slides.” CR Fashion Book, 10 Aug. 2018, www.crfashionbook.com/fashion/a22655925/history-of-pool-slides-fashion/.

“Chronicle and Biography of Adi & Kathe Dassler.”Adi & Kathe Dassler Memorial Foundation, .www.adidassler.org/en/life-and-work/chronicle.

Garber, Megan. “Ball, Disrupted: A Brief History of World Cup Innovation.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 2 Sept. 2014, www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/a-brief-history-of-world-cup-balls/372637/.

“How the Adidas Logo Earned Its Stripes.” Creative Bloq, 3 Feb. 2014, www.creativebloq.com/logo-design/how-adidas-logo-earned-its-stripes-11135390.

Schwär, Hannah. “Puma and Adidas' Rivalry Has Divided a Small German Town for 70 Years - Here's What It Looks like Now.” Business Insider, 1 Oct. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/how-puma-and-adidas-rivalry-divided-their-founding-town-for-70-years-2018-10.