Adidas and Puma have been two of the biggest names in sports shoe manufacturing for over half a century
Since 1928 they have supplied shoes for Olympic athletes , World Cup-winning football heroes ,Muhammad Ali , hip hop stars and rock musicians famous all over world . but the story of these two companies begins in one house in the town of Herzogenaurach ,Germany
Adolph and Rudolph Dassler were the sons of a shoemaker . they loved sport but complained that they could never find comfortable shoes to play in . Rudolph always said "You cannot play sports wearing shoes that you`d walk around town with" So they started making their own. In 1920 Adolph made the first pair of athletics shoes with spikes, produced on the Dasslers kitchen table
On 1st July 1924 hey formed a shoe company, Dassler Brothers Ltd. the company became successful and it provided the shoes for Germany`s athletes at the 1928 and 1932 Olympic Games
But in 1948 the brothers argued . No one knows exactly what happened but family members have suggested that the argument was about money or women. The result was that Adolph left the company . His nickname was Adi, and using this and the first three letters of the family name , Dassler, he founded Adidas
Radolph relocated across the River Aurach and founded his own company too. At first he wanted to call it Ruda, but eventually he called it Puma , after the wild cat .The famous Puma Logo of the jumping cat has survived until now
After the big split of 1948 Adolph and Rudolph never spoke to each other again and since then their companies have been in competition. Both companies were for many years the market leaders , though Adidas has always been more successful than Puma .In the 1970s new American companies Nike and Reebok arrived to rival them
the terrible family argument should really be forgotten, but ever since it happened, over fifty years ago , the town has been split into two. Even now , some Adidas employees and Puma employees don`t talk to each other
