He smeared fresh paint on his hands gently,
on the side of the shoes. Thus,
the iconic Adidas three stripes were born.
And the reason he did this
was simply because his brother had just started Puma.
If you know, Adidas and Puma were once one.
A century ago, back in 1924,
Adidas was just an ordinary cobbler,
spending days in his backyard,
perfecting his sports shoes.
Yet not a single pair got sold to others.
He was just a fool with nothing to show.
Except for his brother Rudy,
a factory sales manager exuding an aura of success.
Whenever anyone spoke ill of his brother,
he’d set them straight. His brother was his weak spot,
not to be sullied by anyone.
But over time, even Adidas began to doubt himself.
He dreamt of top athletes winning in his shoes.
But now it seemed no one needed his sneakers.
That’s when Rudy stepped in.
He had quit his manager job,
planning to start a factory with his brother.
Adi just had to focus on making shoes,
while he would handle selling them all.
The next day, the brothers founded Dasler Shoes Factory.
And that was the precursor to Adidas.
But they soon ran into trouble.
Due to the national crisis,
the economy slumped. Many shoemakers went out of business,
so the banks refused them alone.
The key problem was people expected shoes to be sturdy,
and Adi’s sneakers were quite light and thin.
They might break after just two wears.
Plus, no one would buy shoes just for sports coming out of the bank.
Adi was quite annoyed. He wouldn’t allow anyone to disparage his work,
but his brother told him to just focus on making shoes.
I’ll handle the money matters.
The next day, Rudy set off with a car full of sports shoes.
He ran to the sports field in town,
letting people wear the shoes for a firsthand experience
to feel the unique nature.
Rudy told them that the rubber cleats on the sole
provide better slip resistance.
The light, flexible leather is for comfort during sports.
As his brother,
he knew well the effort put into every part of the shoes.
That afternoon, when Rudy drove home,
the 273 pairs of shoes he brought were all sold out.
As the reputation of the brother shoes grew,
Rudy posted notices on the streets.
He wanted to recruit more workers to increase production.
Meanwhile, Adi was also working on a new model of sports shoes.
But using softer materials made it hard to secure the cleats.
Though he had a brilliant idea.
He took off the tires from his brother’s Mercedes
and used them to reinforce the cleats on the soles.
But even so, the quality of the shoes wasn’t as good as before.
This directly LED to a spike in refund rates.
Rudy couldn’t stand it anymore.
He demanded his brother continue making the old model sports shoes.
Those fancy new designs were not what customers needed.
Having said that, he walked away.
Audi was a bit shocked because in his memory
it was the first time the brothers had argued.
But he didn’t realize such arguments would recur in the future.
Years later, every athlete was wearing Audi’s shoes.
The brothers business flourished and so did their love life.
The only difference was
Rudy still flirted with other girls at his wedding,
while Adi prepared a gift for his wife at theirs.
It was a pair of women’s sports shoes he made himself.
That day,
Rudy planned to take his brother to the bank again to discuss a loan.
But Adi, not eloquent,
didn’t want to attend such occasions.
As the two were at an impasse,
Audie’s wife stepped forward
and so
she took Audie’s place in attending the meeting with his brother.
This time they finally got the loan.
Rudy excitedly lifted his sister in law off the car,
but his wife’s expression turned particularly gloomy.
With this loan, the brother’s small workshop grew into a large factory.
Even the national team coach came to inaugurate their business.
Everything seemed to be progressing well
until the day Adi’s wife made an unexpected request.
She wanted Adi to make a very small pair of sports shoes.
Adi paused for a moment.