Adidas Group AG

International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 75 (2004) by Dave Mote, Mariko Fujinaka, M. Cohen

When they split, Rudi and Adi agreed that neither would be allowed to use the Dassler brand name on their shoes. Rudi named his new company and shoes Ruda, while Adi named his Addas. Shortly thereafter, Adi changed the name to adidas (emphasis on the last syllable) and Rudi, on the advice of an advertising agency, changed the name of his shoes to Puma. Adi altered the Dassler family trademark of two stripes by adding a third. He also adopted the slogan "The Best for the Athlete" as part of his marketing campaign. Rudi chose as his logo a cat's paw in motion.

For many years a signpost in the center of town had two arrows: one pointed to adidas and the other to Puma, which faced adidas on the opposite side of the River Aurach. Each company had its own soccer team, and employees from each company drank different beers. Enrollment at the two elementary schools in town was determined by the factory at which a child's father worked (adidas employees' children attended one school, while Puma employees' children attended the other), and children learned early in their lives to look down on the competing shoe company.

Each shoe company's culture bore the mark of its founder. It may have been for that reason that Adi came to dominate the global athletic shoe industry. Both Rudi and Adi were intelligent and able. Puma eventually became a venerable and established shoe company throughout the global industry. But under Adi Dassler's guiding hand, adidas grew during the mid-1900s to became the undisputed world shoe industry giant. Adi, considered shy but extremely bright, was respected in his village. A natural athlete, inventor, and craftsman, Adi combined his interests to produce a number of breakthrough innovations that catapulted the company to prominence. By the time Dassler died in 1978, in fact, adidas shoes were being worn throughout the world, more than any other sports shoe, by both professional and weekend athletes, and as casual footwear.

An Innovative Leader in Athletic Footwear: 1950s–70s

Adi was credited with numerous inventions during the late 1940s and 1950s, including the first shoes designed for ice and the first multi-studded shoes. adidas is also credited with pioneering the now commonplace practice among athletic shoe manufacturers of selling sports bags and athletic clothing bearing their brand name. Among Adi's most notable early contributions was his improvement of the soccer shoe. Prior to 1957, soccer shoes were designed as they had been for decades, with metal studs mounted in leather. These shoes were heavy, particularly when they got wet. Adi designed a new type of shoe that sported a nylon sole and molded rubber studs. The result was a more lightweight, durable shoe. Introduced in 1957, the revolutionary soccer shoe was eventually copied by other shoe companies, including chief rival Puma.