Research paper

Adolf Dassler: A Time of Triumph

Shoes are the footwear that helps us not stub our toes or damage our feet, but imagine if we did not have shoes from our favorite brand, the second most popular, Adidas. Adidas was not too popular from the beginning, it started out with a rough start. Adidas did not just appear out of nowhere, a very important person named Adolf Dassler invented the whole shoe brand. Adolf Dassler was an important figure in history who had a positive impact on the world because he created the Adidas shoe company from scratch and made his first-ever cleats made for running, by hand. Adolf Dassler’s shoes were important because he had to make them by hand in his mother’s wash kitchen after serving in world war I. He not only tried to make his company really known, but he succeeded in making a very popular company named Adidas that became known after a while.

Early life

Adolf Dassler was born on November 3, 1900, in Herzogenaurach, Germany. He had a father named Christoph Dassler and a Mother named Pauline Dassler. Adolf Dassler had four siblings but one of them named Rudolf Dassler created a rival company named pumas. His father was a Tailor and his mother was running the family laundry business (Walters). Adolf Dassler was the youngest out of the five siblings and he managed to create the Adidas company. At first, Adolf Dassler wanted to become a baker but soon later he changed his mind and wanted to run a shoe-making company (Walters). Adolf Dassler started his shoe-making business by going to a shoe technical school that taught him a lot about shoes (“Adolf Dassler”). His brother that made the rival company pumas, was one of the major inspirations that made Adolf want to create his own shoe company. Another thing that inspired Adolf Dassler was all of the athletes he worked with. They had specific needs needed to play the sport that they play. After World War II, The company almost got destroyed and was saved from destruction. This made Adolf Dassler want to keep the company safe from any other thing. Another thing that inspired Adolf Dassler to make Adidas was him experimenting with new shoes so that he could make the Adidas shoe company (Walters).

Beginning of Career/Impact on the World

Adolf Dassler began his brand as a small company business with his brother involved in the beginning (Milne). At first, his brother wanted to be involved in working in the Adidas company, but then the brother realized that he could just make his own company Pumas and not have to work side by side with Adolf Dassler. People have many theories on why Rudolf Dassler actually left to start a company but the most common theory is that he just wanted to create his own company (Milne). Adolf Dassler started his career by making a shoe workshop out of the family laundry shed (Walters). Adolf Dassler started out making shoes for the people around his neighborhood. Converting the family laundry shed into his own small shoe business gave Adolf Dassler time to start working on shoes specialized for track and field. As soon as the company started, the first thing the Dasslers family business was famous for was making running shoes branded after them (Walters). The Dasslers started learning that they needed to start making shoes more specific depending on what they were used for (Walters). Adolf Dassler had to overcome barely coming out of war and having to start working on a shoe empire that he made famous. He worked really hard to achieve his company’s success.

Significant accomplishments

The moment Adolf Dassler’s shoes started becoming more desired was in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin (Milne). Adolf Dassler worked with Jesse Owens, a famous Olympic athlete (Walters). Jesse Owens won four gold medals using Adolf Dassler’s spiked running shoes making people want to buy some of Adolf Dassler’s shoes (“Adolf Dassler”). Later in life, After creating a bigger company, Jesse Owens became one of Adolf Dassler’s company ambassadors. Adolf Dassler started working on new shoes that were supposed to be leather football shoes made up with some nailed studs. Adolf succeeded in making these shoes and business went high up because Germany’s economy was also going up. Since the business was going up, the Dasslers decided to move to a bigger place in Herzogenaurach (Walters). Adolf Dassler accomplished putting Adidas shoes on an athlete in the Olympics (Milne). Once he moved the company to a different location, Adolf Dassler had a problem with his electricity. To fix the problems with the electricity, he hooked up a leather milling machine to a bicycle and had his first-ever employee do the job of running the bicycle (Walters). A long time later, Adolf Dassler decided to make the company his own business and not a family business. The problem soon arose and he wanted to make the name of the company “Addas'' but the problem with that was that the name was too similar to a kids toy company. To fix this problem, all he did was insert an “I” in between both “d’s”. Adolf Dassler was pretty disappointed when he found out, he even had business cards with the name “Addas” (Walters). The name was significant to him because it was the combination of his first and last names. Rudolf and Adolf Dassler had some problems working together. These problems ended up making two separate companies. It wasn’t until 1948 that the two brothers decided to become separate companies. Pumas and Adidas were now rival companies (Milne).

Impact on the World

Adolf Dassler made the world different because he came up with the idea to create some sports shoes that changed the sport of soccer for the better (Milne). Adolf also served in wars to fight and change the history of the world (“Adolf Dassler”). Adolf Dassler created the top-selling American sports shoe (Bruno). His sports company is one of the best in the world with annual revenue of € 23bn (Walters). Adolf made his company better by starting to sell a more diverse set of items in his company (Bruno). Adolf Dassler helped Olympic athletes from around the world win some medals. Adolf Dassler also changed shoes during his time period because he improved the quality of shoes around the world. He encouraged others to try and improve the quality of their shoes for the better (Walters). He inspired more companies to make more shoes just like he did. His company was making 200,000 shoes every day in the late 1970s (Bruno). Not only did Adolf Dassler make the world different, but he also inspired his brother to make a different company and sell shoes (“Adolf Dassler”). Adolf Dassler inspired other shoemakers to make more shoes of better quality for the people (Walters).

Lessons Learned From Their Life (Conclusion)

Adolf Dassler had many different traits that made him great. He could make a shoe empire out of a small family business. Adolf Dassler made shoes out of only the supplies he had. He could maintain a business and not let it collapse. The lessons that Adolf Dassler learned from his life can be applied to me because they are really useful lessons that he learned on his own. Lessons like how to maintain a business or how to become more popular can be some life lessons that a person needs to know. This person is someone to look up to because he is a big inspiration to the people that want to create a business and keep it going. This person is an inspiration to people that want to become known for doing things like making shoes, clothes, or other things. Adolf Dassler will forever be remembered as the person to look up to if you are feeling like your business will succeed or won’t succeed.

Works Cited

“Adolf Dassler (1900 – 78).” European Route of Industrial Heritage, erih.net/how-it-started/stories-about-people-biographies/biography/dassler. Accessed 25 Jan, 2021.

Bruno, Gwen.” History of Adolf Dassler.” LiveStrong.com, livestrong.com/article/344657-history-of-adolf-dassler/. Accessed 25 Jan. 2021.

Milne, Andrew “How Adolf Dassler’s Nazi-Era Sneaker Company Became Adidas And Puma.”All that’s interesting, 7 April 2020, allthatsinteresting.com/adolf-dassler. Accessed 25 Jan, 2021.

Walters, Matt."Adolf Dassler: The creative and innovative leader behind Adidas.” Adidas Blog, 2 Nov, 2020 gameplan-a.com/2020/11/adolf-dassler-the-creative-and-innovative-leader-behind-adidas/. Accessed 25 Jan 2021.