Adidas and Puma end feud

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

By Channel 4 News

More than 60 years after a feud between brothers Adi and Rudolf Dassler produced the Adidas and Puma sportswear firms, the two companies are making peace for one day.

A historic handshake today between the chief executives of the two firms was followed by a football match in which employees from both companies played on mixed teams to celebrate International Peace Day.

"We are uniting on this day as a commitment to Peace Day," Puma CEO and Chairman Jochen Zeitz said in the statement.

In a joint statement last week, the two companies said they were making up to support the Peace One Day organisation, which has its annual non-violence day today.

They say that the events will be the first joint activities held by the two companies since the brothers left their shared firm in 1948.

"I am looking very much forward to our Adidas and Puma football match and I hope that our joint initiative helps to raise further awareness for Peace One Day around the world" – Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer.

Company split
In 1924 Rudolf Dassler joined his brother Adolf’s sports shoe business, which subsequently became Gebruder Dassler Schuhfabrik.

In 1936 the company provided the spiked shoes for Jesse Owens, who went on to win four gold medals in the Berlin Olympics that year.

But the brothers fell out during the war, and in 1947 went on to found separate companies. Rudolf formed a new firm called Ruda (from Rudolf Dassler), later renamed Puma. Adolf formed Adidas (Adi Dassler).

The rivalry that developed between the two companies even divided the firms' home town of Herzogenaurach, a small town of 23,000 people in southern Germany, where Adidas and Puma have rival factories on opposite sides of the river.

Both names went on to become huge global brands and continue to dominate the trainer market today in both fashion and professional sport.

The world's fastest man Usain Bolt wears Puma shoes, while tennis star Novak Djokovic is sponsored by Adidas.

Neither group is now controlled by the descendants of its founding families, although Rudolf's grandson Frank Dassler raised some eyebrows in the town by working for both Puma and Adidas.

Since 2007, Puma has been majority-owned by PPR, the French luxury goods maker that also owns Gucci.

Adidas Group is much more widely-owned, with no individual shareholder having more than 5 per cent.