Adi Dassler: biography with photo

About the company "Adidas" knows almost every inhabitant of the planet, and for sure many people have a question about why the brand is named in this way. So, its founder is Adolf (Adi) Dassler, who today is considered one of the most successful businessmen of all time. When exactly the idea of creating this company was born, why did the founder decide to start producing sportswear and equipment? Read in 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: the mother was washing herself from morning till night in her own laundry, and her father baked bread and buns in a bakery. Adolf was called Adi diminutively in his childhood. Dassler Rudolph - the elder brother so called him even in adulthood.

Adolf grew up quiet, you might say, even a quiet boy. He was 14 years old when the First World War began. He was still very small in order to be drafted into the army and sent to the front, but at that time he was very keen on football, the most popular game in Europe. After the end of the war, in which Germany was defeated, the country was in complete disrepair, inflation and unemployment seemed to run in a race.

Start a business

Like many simple families, the Dassler were on the verge of poverty. And in 1920 they, having gathered together, decided to organize a family business in manufacturing footwear. Under the workshop it was decided to remake the laundry of the mother of the family. All the rest decided to make from improvised means. So, for example, Adi Dassler, who has the gift of an inventor, made an old leather bicycle from an old bicycle.

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

Flowering of production

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

It was love for this sport that contributed to the fact that Adolf once decided to make real football boots with thorns. This happened in 1925. It was then that the first studded footwear appeared. It came to the liking of players, and orders fell on the Dassler. In addition to studded boots, the factory also produced sports slippers. Thus, production expanded, and it was necessary to think about a new building for him.

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

Olympic "Dassler"

Adi Dassler and his brother Rudolf were completely absorbed in the work at their factory. Adolph tried every new model himself during a game of football. With the development of a new wave of olympiads, he began to make special shoes for the strongest sportsmen - the winners. For the first time in such shoes were shod football players at the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928. In the games of 1932 in Los Angeles, a German athlete, playing in boots from Adi Dassler, was among the top three winners. 1936 was even more successful: a black athlete from the United States Owens in the shoes of the brand "Dassler" won 4 zloty 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 DM. One factory did not have enough, and soon the brothers had to open a second one.

War

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

Revival

By 1946, the firm was in utter decay, and the Dassler brothers began to raise it from scratch. Work of employees paid in kind, those received from the owners of wood and yarn. Two years later their father died, and then the brothers decided to split the company into two parts. The blessing of factories was two - to each one. The name of the company also had to be changed. Adi named his firm "Addas", and Rudi - "Ruda".

However, after a while, the ingenious Adolf came up with a sonorous name, which is still the most famous of the sports companies around the world - Adidas. Ruda was also renamed Puma. And the brand "Dassler" suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth. At the same time, the brothers became ardent opponents, both in business and in life. Although no one has ever learned what made them enemies.

Suits with stripes

After parting with his brother, Adi Dassler, whose biography has since started from scratch, became the sole owner of his firm, and he decided that the symbol of his new firm would be three strips, instead of two Dassler's. Further in the course went all his ingenuity. He, for example, invented boots with removable spikes of rubber. Then in 1950 he invented special soccer shoes for playing in bad weather. And in 1952 most of the athletes were already shod in Adidas.

Next, he decides not to limit himself to the production of shoes and begins to create bags and other accessories, and in plans - the launch of clothing production. And in this he helped Willy Seltenreich. Soon in the market came out sports suits with three stripes on the sides and on the sleeves, which symbolized the firm "Adidas."

Prosperity

The greatest triumph for Adi Dassler was the victory of the German national football team at the World Championships. All members of the team were shod and dressed in sports kits from Adidas. It was a revival not only of the company, but of the entire country, which for the first time after the defeat in the war became the winner. Since then, he began to place his advertising directly at the stadiums. With this, the commercialization of sports began. The monument to Adolf Dasler, the founder of the world famous Adidas company, is set right at the stadium.