Adi Dassler: biography with photo

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Almost every inhabitant of the planet knows about Adidas, and for sure many people have a question about why the brand is named like that. So, its founder is Adolf (Adi) Dassler, who today is considered one of the most successful businessmen of all time. When exactly was the idea of creating this company born, why did the founder decide to start producing sportswear and equipment? Read this article.

Adi Dassler: biography with photo

Adolf was born in early November 1900 in the city of Herzogenaurach (Bavaria). Parents were real hard workers: mother washed from morning till night in her own laundry, and father baked bread and buns in a bakery. Adolf in childhood was called diminutively Adi. Dassler Rudolf - the elder brother called him that even in adulthood.

Adolf grew up a calm, one might say, even a quiet boy. He was 14 years old when the First World War began. He was still very young to be drafted into the army andsent to the front, but at that time he became very interested in football - the most popular game in Europe. After the end of the war, in which Germany was defeated, the country was in complete ruin, inflation and unemployment seemed to be racing.

Starting a business

Like many ordinary families, the Dasslers were on the verge of poverty. And in 1920, they, having gathered together, decided to organize a family business for the manufacture of shoes. It was decided to convert the mother's laundry room into a workshop. Everything else was decided to be made from improvised means. So, for example, Adi Dassler, who has the gift of an inventor, made a leather cutting machine from an old bicycle.

The female part of the family - mother and sisters - made patterns, but the men - Adolf, Rudolf and the head of the family himself - were engaged in cutting shoes. Of course, in order to make shoes, they first needed to gain experience, so their first products were slippers, which they cut out of decommissioned military uniforms, and the soles were made from old tires. It turned out that Rudy is very good at selling goods, and Adolf is very good at managing production. He was also great at modeling shoes.

Flourishing production

After 4 years, their company already had a dozen employees, including family members. They managed to produce 50 pairs per day. In 1924, the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory was officially registered. The brothers were very different, but they complemented each other. The eldest, Rudolph, was absurd, liked girls, listened to jazz and hit a punching bag, and Adi Dassler, on the contrary, was a quiet and calm intellectual who loved to drive football.

It was the love of this sport that made Adolf one day decide to make real football boots with spikes. This happened in 1925. It was then that the first studded shoes appeared. The players liked her, and orders rained down on the Dasslers. In addition to studded boots, the factory also produced sports slippers. Thus, the production expanded, and it was already necessary to think about a new building for it.

The brothers had such a chance already in 1927. Together with the new building, it became possible to double the number of employees. The same goes for the number of shoes produced.

Olympic "Dassler"

Adi Dassler and his brother Rudolf were completely absorbed in working in their factory. Each new model Adolf tried himself while playing football. With the development of a new wave of Olympiads, he began to make special shoes for the strongest athletes - winners. For the first time, football players were shod in such shoes at the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928. In the 1932 games in Los Angeles, a German athlete wearing boots from Adi Dassler entered the top three. 1936 was even more successful: a black athlete from the United States, Owens, wearing Dassler brand shoes, won 4 złoty medals and set 5 records at once. It was a complete victory for the German company. That year their sales rose to half a million German marks. One factory was no longer enough for them, andsoon the brothers had to open a second one.

War

With the advent of the Nazi party, the Dasslers joined them. And with the beginning of World War II, they began to produce military shoes. Then Rudy decided that he should fight for the interests of his country, and Adi Dassler (see photo in the article) remained in production. After the end of the war with the failure of Germany, the Herzogenaurach region was occupied by American troops. Adi had to make skates for American hockey players. Meanwhile, the Yankees were comfortably settled in their house. Adolf's wife had to take over all the dirty work. She even dug in the garden and looked after the cattle. A year later, the Americans left, and Rudy returned from the POW camp.

Rebirth

By 1946, the company was in complete decline, and the Dassler brothers began to raise it almost from scratch. The work of employees was paid in kind, they received firewood and yarn from the owners. Two years later, their father died, and then the brothers decided to split the company into two parts. Fortunately, there were two factories - one for each. The name of the company also needed to be changed. Adi named his firm Addas and Rudy named Ore.

However, after some time, the ingenious Adolf came up with a sonorous name for it, which is still the most famous sports company in the world - "Adidas". Ruda was renamed Puma. And the brand "Dassler" suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth. At the same time, the brothers became ardent opponents, as inbusiness as well as in life. Although no one ever found out what made them enemies.

Suits with stripes

After parting with his brother, Adi Dassler, whose biography from that moment began anew, became the sole owner of his company, and he decided that three stripes would be the symbol of his new company, instead of two Dassler ones. Then all his ingenuity went into action. He, for example, invented boots with removable rubber spikes. Then in 1950 he invented special football boots for playing in bad weather. And in 1952, most athletes were already wearing Adidas.

Next, he decides not to limit himself to the production of shoes and begins to create bags and other accessories, and plans to start the production of clothes. And Willy Seltenreich helped him in this. Soon, tracksuits with three stripes on the sides and on the sleeves, which symbolized the Adidas company, went on sale.

Prosperity

The biggest triumph for Adi Dassler was the victory of the German national football team at the World Cup. All team members were shod and dressed in sports kits from Adidas. It was a revival not only of the company, but of the whole country, which for the first time after the defeat in the war became the winner. Since then, he began to place his ads right in the stadiums. This is where the commercialization of sports began. A monument to Adolf Dasler, the founder of the world-famous Adidas company, is installed right at the stadium.