The Nazi Brothers Who Started Rival Shoe Companies

Adidas and Puma are two of the world's most iconic sports brands and yet they're both based in this tiny town in Germany that's because these two companies share a very controversial history filled with betrayal sabotage and a sibling rivalry like no other Adolf and Rudolph dazla were brothers but they ended up starting rival shoe companies and becoming bitter enemies the history of Adidas and Puma was like a lifelong chess match where both brothers stopped at nothing to try and destroy the other even to this day their family feud still divides the entire town where they

were born with one half backing Adidas and the other backing Puma this is a story of Lies secrets and Corruption it spans two world wars and uncovers how the founders joined the Nazi party and produced weapons for Hitler's Army two brothers Bound by Blood but driven apart by greed and ambition this is the insane true story of Adidas and [Music] puma in 1898 Rudolph dasler known as Rudy was born into a poor family just two years later his brother Adolf was born known as Addie and it's fair to say it was a difficult childhood for

the two brothers they lived in a tiny town in Germany that was known for its Sho making factories their father worked at one of these but he didn't earn enough money to support the whole family so their mother ran a laundry business on the side she would clean people's clothes and then Rudy and Addie would deliver them all around town and so they quickly became known as the LA boys however both boys were later drafted into the German Army to fight in the first world war and by the time they returned home their mother's laundry

business had lost every customer the war had destroyed Germany's economy and the situation looked leak but this time it was Addie who came up with a business idea to try and help his family survive Addie had always been interested in athletics and for many years he'd wanted to follow in his Father's Footsteps as a Shoemaker you see at the time people typically didn't have specific shoes for different events so Addy figured that if he created Spike shoes specifically for running it would give athletes a huge advantage and thus Addy decided to turn his mother's laundry

shed into a workshop for making his own shoes there were a few major obstacles in the way though Addy didn't have any money or materials and the war had knocked out the electricity grids of the town however that didn't stop him instead of buying the materials he needed to make the shoes Addy spent days scouring old battlefields for whatever materials he could find he used strips of leather from helmets string from broken parachutes and basically anything he could find to make shoes with to make up for the lack of electricity Addy got creative he attached

a leather trimmer to a bicycle wheel and got one of his friends the pedal to give him the power he needed thanks to add's improvisation he was able to make shoes that were surprisingly durable and they became popular in his town he also became obsessed over every detail of the shoes and experimented with all different materials and Designs it was clear his business had potential for expansion and so Addy's brother Rudy decided to quit his job and come work with Addie Rudy was much more extroverted and carismatic than his brother so he would focus on

sales meanwhile Addy loved Sports and was a perfection with the designs so he would focus on manufacturing the shoes and thus it seemed like together they would make a great team so in 1924 they officially started the dazla brothers sport shoe factory of course nobody could have predicted that this joint venture would tear the family apart and lead to two Global shoe Empires [Music] Rudy pitched dazzler shoes to every Sports Club he could find in Germany sales quickly increased which allowed the brothers to move out of their family's cramped laundry shed and into a new

Factory with better equipment and more employees now they could make higher quality shoes and also expand into football boots which was good timing as football was rapidly growing in popularity across the country Rudy gave away free pairs to many footb clubs knowing that once they saw the quality they'd want more and so business was going well for the brothers Addie kept improving the quality of his shoes and Rudy kept selling them out but then Hitler Rose to power and nothing would ever be the same the Nazis began heavily promoting Sports and Physical Fitness as a

way to Foster the German People's National Pride or prepare them for war this led to an unprecedented amount of demand for sport shoes and the dazzla brothers were there to profit from it both Addie and Rudy also officially joined the Nazi party some may say this was a necessity at the time if you wanted to run a business in Germany but there does seem to be evidence that they were both genuine supporters of Hitler Rudy was actually quite vocal about his strong political opinions in support of the Nazis and while Addie was less vocal he

was heavily involved in the Hitler Youth either way there's no doubt their sport shoe business massively benefited from the Nazi regime but their biggest breakthrough of all was in 1936 when Germany hosted the Olympic Games this was the first ever Olympics to be televised and so the brothers realized it was a golden marketing opportunity if they could get Olympic athletes wearing their shoes it would be the perfect advertisement and there was one athlete in particular they wanted to wear their shoes Jesse Owens an African-American who is one of the most popular athletes in the world

however sponsoring Jesse Owens was a dangerous move Hitler saw the Olympics as a way to demonstrate to the world what he believed was the superiority of the German race and so having a black athlete win would go completely against what Hitler wanted and thus the dazza brothers being seen to support Jesse Owens was undoubtedly risky but Addy was determined to do so and went to find Jesse Owens at the Olympic Village after a brief conversation he showed him his personalized running shoes and Jesse accepted the gift and agreed to wear the shoes during the Olympics

you see back then things were different athletes were just happy to be gifted great shoes for free and didn't expect any additional compensation for wearing them Jesse Owens went on to win four gold medals at the Berlin Olympic Games whilst wearing dazla shoes Hitler was of course Furious as this went completely against the propaganda he was trying to push of the Aryan race being supreme but this was undoubtedly an incredible promotion for the brothers as the best athlete at the Olympics was wearing their shoes thanks to this publicity the brothers soon started to receive orders

from all over the world on the surface everything looked great for their company however behind the scenes tensions had started to grow between the two brothers and the aftermath of the Olympics would be the beginning of the end [Music] the dazzler Factory was busier than ever before but the brothers couldn't agree on how to handle this as the stress of the business increased so did the tensions between the brothers Rudy felt the business would be nothing without his sales efforts well Addy felt the business would be nothing without his product and things got more heated

after World War II broke out as every business was expected to contribute to the war effort so the dazzer shu became a manufacturer of boots and weapons for Nazi soldiers Rudy saw this as a threat because during the war Addie was clearly in charge he was the one who knew about manufacturing and Rudy became paranoid that Addie was pushing him out of the business this led to a lot of fights but to make things worse the brothers had invested in a property together so they were both living in the same house along with their wives

and children and thus they were spending almost all of their time together and started arguing more than ever one night when Allied bombs were being dropped on Germany Addy and his wife went down to the basement for shelter when he saw Rudy and his wife already down there he said the bastards are back again now Addie said he was referring to the Allies who were currently dropping bombs on them but Rudy was convinced that add's comments had been directed to him and his wife when the family came out of that basement Rudy and Addie could

no longer stand each other soon after Rudy was called up to the Army whilst Addy was allowed to stay behind to operate the factory which was now producing tank parts but while on the front lines Rudy became more convinced that Addie wanted to take over the company for himself so he sent a letter saying he didn't feel Addie had the character to lead the company and Rudy demanded his wife be his representative while he was away with the Army but Addy refused the hatred between the brothers became so intense that Rudy reported Addy to the

Nazi authorities claiming that he was hoarding leather that should have been used for the war effort as a result Addy was briefly held and interrogated after the war ended the process of dentification began where the Americans took German people to trial to find out if they committed any crimes during the war Rudy was imprisoned due to suspicions of his heavy involvement in the Nazi regime and he spent a year in a prisoner of war camp during this time he he grew bitter that his brother wasn't doing anything to help him get released in fact the

Americans later revealed that Rudy's arrest had been because of a tip off they received and so Rudy was convinced it was Addie who had turned him into the Americans to get rid of him when Rudy was finally released from prison Adib was going through his own trial where he was suspected of war profiteering and Rudy didn't miss the chance to testify against him of course Addy denied everything and eventually both brothers were cleared but after everything that had happened they were no longer Brothers they were sworn enemies there were even rumors of an alleged Affair

between Rudy and Addy's wife and this is the problem there were so many allegations it's hard to know exactly what's true what we do know for sure is that after all the fights and betrayals the brothers couldn't stand each other and there was no way they could work together and thus in 1948 after months of bitter negotiations Rudy and Addie split the company's assets and registered two separate companies Adidas and puma and with both brothers fueled by Revenge they would spend the rest of their lives sabotaging each other's businesses [Music] to name his company Addy

used his nickname Addie and combined it with the first half of his surname dazla depending on where you're from you may pronounce it Adidas or personally I've always heard Adidas as for Rudy he was also going to name his company after himself so he initially called it Ruda but after a few weeks he decided to change it to the name we all know Puma he thought it sounded better and said athletes wanted to be like a puma again depending on where you're from you may say puma or Puma either way dividing one company into two

different companies was a messy process the employees had to choose which new company to go work for most of the technical staff went with Addie and most of the sales staff went with Rudy but this had a strange effect on their small Hometown the town where both Addy and Rudy lived was split down the middle by a river and so once Addy and Rudy split into two separate companies Adidas was on one side and Puma was on the other and from that point on the town was forever divided Adidas and Puma quickly became the largest

employers on their respective sides of the river and so they developed their own semi-isolated communities each side had their own school so the kids of parents who worked for Adidas went to one school and kids of parents who worked for Puma went to another it was also highly frowned upon to date people from the other side of town and rival gangs even formed based on the shoes it was practically a crime to be wearing Puma on the Adidas side of town and vice versa eventually the brother's Hometown became known as the town of bent necks

because people were always looking down to see what shoes people were wearing so they knew whether to speak to them or not the only person who didn't pick aside was the mayor who at official events wore one shoe from Adidas and one from Puma to ensure both Brands were represented at first though it would have been hard to tell Adidas and Puma shoes apart because they looked pretty much the same however one of the techniques Addy used to make running shoes more stable was to add three leather stripes on their sides so in 1949 Addie

started painting these leather stripes white which instantly made his shoe stand out and people loved the look now that Adidas and Puma shoes look different both Rudy and Addie were determined to become the dominant Sports shoe manufacturer in Germany and a huge opportunity was approaching [Music] Germany was getting ready for their first World Cup since the war Rudy personally knew the national team's coach and so he tried to strike a deal with him to ensure the German team wore Puma boots during the World Cup however they couldn't agree on payment terms Rudy was convinced the

manager would back down eventually but this completely backfired as the manager struck a deal with Addie instead and so the German team wore Adidas shoes at first though the German team seemed to be having a tough time and so expectations were low but then to everyone's surprise they somehow made it all the way to the final this would surely be where their luck would end though as they were playing hungry who hadn't lost a match in 4 years right before the game began though it started to rain and that was excellent news you see the

boots Addy had custom designed for the German players could be adjusted by screwing in studs at the bottom he called These Boots adjustable cleats and they gave Germany's players a much better grip when the grass was wet still the finals started out badly for Germany as they were two goals down but as the pitch got muddier and muddier hungary's players started slipping while Germany's players were running around perfectly well thanks to their adjustable cleats soon enough Germany scored a first goal then a second and in the final minutes of the game they took the lead

it was an extremely unlikely victory for West Germany which fans described as a miracle for the first time since the war the people of Germany had something to feel proud of it was one of the country's most uplifting cultural moments and since the team had won wearing Adidas shoes it turned Addie into a sort of national hero Adidas had a massive explosion of demand meanwhile Rudy was devastated that he' missed a golden opportunity to promote his company tensions increased fur further 2 years later during the Melbourne Olympics Puma's shipment of shoes mysteriously didn't get cleared

by Customs but Adidas's shipment did rumors swirled that Customs officers had been bribed by Adidas not to let Puma's shipment through so that the majority of athletes would wear Adidas shoes instead Rudy was Furious that Adidas was getting the spotlight and over the next few years Adidas and Puma would try to outdo each other at every opportunity Rudy and Addie's Revenge driven Feud LED them to aggressively expand their businesses both companies started selling their shoes abroad and then they also started selling other products like shorts socks and sneakers whatever one company did so did the

other and with both companies expanding rapidly the two brothers enlisted their sons to help them so Addy's son named H started making decisions for Adidas and Rudy's son named Armen started making decisions for Puma with a new generation of dazzlers you may think the family drama would have cooled down but instead it was the opposite very soon the Suns would have their own reasons to hate each other do you want to create videos like this if so you're going to want to know about today's sponsor story blocks I've been using story blocks for years now

as they have over a million video clips templates songs sound effects and more so let's say you want to create a smoke effect well you just type smoke in their search box and instantly get different clips and templates to choose from then let's say you want some dark music you can just filter their songs by mood and download the perfect track and because all story blocks downloads are 100% royaltyfree you don't have to worry about copyright claims or getting demonetized but here's why I really love story blocks normally with stock footage you have to pay

for every single clip but with a story block subscription you can get unlimited downloads at no extra cost cost so it's much more affordable for creators and it makes it way faster to create great videos as everything you need is all in one place so to get started with unlimited stock media downloads at one set price head to story blocks.com slm magnates or click the link in the description [Music] both companies became involved in a sponsorship race to make deals with the best athletes they would spend huge amounts of money whining and dining the biggest

stars to try and get them to wear their shoes however this soon got out of hand for the 1968 Olympics H and Armen had wasted endless amounts of money by getting into bidding wars against each other to sponsor certain athletes this massively drove up their costs and decimated their profits so before the 197 World Cup in Mexico they made a secret PCT you see at the time there was one athlete who they were both dying to sign Pelle Pelle wasn't just another football player he was seen as the most talented player in the world since

he was world famous signing Pelle would have been a GameChanger for either Adidas or Puma but HST and Armen knew that if either of them tried the other would just make a better offer and they would keep outbidding each other until they burned all their cash so an agreement was made that that Adidas or Puma would sponsor Pelle he was strictly off limits so you can imagine the shock and rage from the Adidas team when they turned on the World Cup quarterfinals to see Pelle wearing a pair of Puma shoes as the teams got into

position for the opening whistle every camera was pointed at Pelle and right before the game began Pelle asked the referee to stop for a moment he then knelt down and tied his shoelaces for those few seconds Puma dominated millions of television screens all across the world without Adidas knowing Puma had signed Pelle in a deal worth over $125,000 and getting him to stop the game to tie his laces was literally the perfect advertising Pelle went on to lead Brazil to victory in the World Cup which elevated Puma's Global standing and made their boots Global bestsellers

for years to come obviously H was Furious that Armen had broken their pact the dazla feud was back on and stronger than than ever meanwhile Addy and Rudy were now in their 70s they still hadn't spoken in many years and continued to hate each other in fact even when Rudy was dying of lung cancer Addy refused to see him or even go to his funeral Addie himself died a few years later both brothers are buried in their Town's graveyard but at opposite ends so even in death they still remain divided hey Legends it's John here

creator of magnates media just wanted to quickly share some exciting news with you so for those who don't know magnates media is not some big company I literally started this channel by myself from my bedroom making terrible videos I couldn't even afford a tripod so I had a camera on some books which is why the angle was a bit slanted so I couldn't have imagined I'd be where I am now because now I get to make videos about whatever topics I find interesting and I can do it from anywhere in the world as I don't

have to be on camera anymore and I have a small team to help me which means that we get super creative with the videos like experimenting with 3D and crazy animations it's like running your own mini Film Studio where you can make whatever you want however the problem is it took me years to figure all this out like how the algorithm Works how to hire the right people how to get big sponsors and make more money all this stuff that creators never publicly talk about so that's why I spent months and months putting everything I've

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channels who've gone through the program who you can connect with plus I'm in the Community myself answering questions so you can literally ask me anything you want so you never feel stuck honestly this is the system I wish I had had when I started out as it would have saved me years of expensive and timec consuming mistakes so if you've ever wanted to grow your own YouTube channel this system is perfect for you just click the link in the description below to claim one of the remaining spaces or go to magnet. medsystem and I'll chat

with you inside the community in just a minute [Music] both Adidas and Puma had lost their Founders and without them their sons H and Armen had a tough time taking the lead under host's leadership Adidas focused so much on sponsorship deals and outspending Puma that they spent almost all of their money and completely forgot about what their customers actually cared about meanwhile Puma under Army leadership focused solely on expanding to Adidas's scale which didn't happen and their product quality suffered because of it the late '70s and early ' 80s were a terrible time for both

companies and by 1989 they were nearing the edge of bankruptcy so they both sold out to private investors now Adidas and Puma were someone else's problem but Reviving them wouldn't be easy Adidas and Puma had been so focused on outdoing each other that by the '90s Nike had beaten both of them and become the Undisputed leader of the sports industry however in 1993 Robert Lou draus a Swiss billionaire known for brand turnarounds bought Adidas he wanted to position Adidas as the sports brand for serious athletes but also make it cool again so he focused on

creating Innovative new products like the Predator boots and partnering with star athletes like David Beckham Kobe Bryant and Andre Agassi by 2006 Adidas was already on much better foot so Lou draus bought Reebok for 3.8 billion and in 2013 they partnered with Kanye West to create Yeezys which became a billion doll brand by itself so thanks to Lou draus Adidas was able to fight back against Nike and now it was bigger than ever as for Puma it was bought in 1993 by a young German executive called yanites and he took a very different approach Puma

was smaller than Adidas so once zit ensured they were making quality product products again he entered Niche markets like Formula 1 he then scored deals with high-profile athletes like usus bolt but most crucially of all zes turned Puma into more than just a sports Company by working with bold designers like Alexander McQueen and even bringing on Rihanna as their creative director he positioned Puma as an edgy rebellious player in fashion as a whole thanks to zits Puma had reclaimed billion dooll brand status by the mid 2000s and now it's the world's third largest Sports apparel

company only behind Adidas and Nike Adidas and Puma are not family run businesses anymore so in 2009 they finally put an end to the dazla feud by hosting a friendly football match in Addy and Rudy's Hometown employees from both Adidas and Puma played together on mixed teams and the two CEOs even played on the same team as a show of solidarity however even to this day the town where it all started is still divided with Adidas head waters on one side of the river and Puma on the other you can't help but wonder if the

da the brothers hadn't fallen out and spent so much time fighting each other maybe they'd have built the number one sports brand but instead Nike did and to see how they did it just click this thumbnail on screen now trust me the story of Nike is a crazy one I'll see you there cheers