Family Business: Adolf & Rudolf Founders of Adidas And Puma
May 05, 2010 in
USA Soccer Apparel
Starting family businesses — good or bad? adidas has an interesting history. Adolf Dassler founded the company after he returned from World War I. His family supported his venture, but a few decades later, altercations caused his business partner brother, Rudolf, left and began Puma. The company is now the second largest sports apparel brand and is the official uniform of the Notre Dame football team. Their current advertising campaign, “Impossible is Nothing” — is BusinessBoomer’s quote of the day! Speaking of families, watch the wonderful 1-minute commercial with Muhammad Ali, voiced-over by his daughter, Laila Ali.
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13 comments
GimmeBWW on September 12, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Two things come to my mind when I think about family and business. First, growing up, I always wished my brother would start a rock band with me, but he just wasn’t interested in music. Two, I hate to say it, but to me it comes off as rather unprofessional when small business owners put their kids in local television commercials. That’s all. Best wishes, Abbie.
alcoholic714 on September 13, 2007 at 3:10 am
NO partnership survives success OR failure.
kooshari on December 21, 2007 at 1:47 pm
As dull as a dinner plate.
charelsalopez on January 20, 2008 at 12:05 am
Hi. Your grammar is incorrect in your sentence in your description:
“…His family supported his venture, but a few decades later, altercations caused his business partner brother, Rudolf, left and began Puma.
Change “left” to “to leave”
Dizazstar on March 26, 2008 at 10:02 pm
You didn’t mention that he was a nazi and he made the three stripe in honor for the Third Reich!
Businessboomer on March 27, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Was he really? Damn…Wikipedia left that out! I’ll have to do more research.
bramcorleone on May 3, 2008 at 8:34 pm
The town where both the factories of both companies are based is basically split up. On one side of the river Puma and on the other side Adidas. At least I think that’s what I’ve read a couple years back in an article regarding those two sports brands.
I do think a company can be family run, but I don’t know if it only works from father to son/daughter or involvement of more than one family member of equal height (e.g. brothers/sisters, husband and wife, etc).
kibbleznblitz on July 11, 2008 at 12:52 pm
thanks teacher. if you understood what she meant and you can gain from the point of this video then why does that one matter?
investortownhall on July 26, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Abby, Adidas is #2 because it let now #1 Nike come from no where in the late 60′s to #1 with superior marketing stratgies. And Nike most famous ad “just do it” is one of the greatest of all time. And if you like the Ali “Impossible is Nothing” than research how Ali was a forgotten ledgend until a young MBA graduate who needed a job had an idea to market Ali as a brand similiar to what had been done with Evis. That young man reserrected the Ali ledgend.
imqtkd on October 2, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I started my first corporation with a roommate and boyfriend, out of the house we all lived in. I would not trade those experiences for the world, but I also learned a lot of valuable lessons the hard way. Living, working and making love in the same dwellings has problems 1-1000 to deal with. Don’t get me wrong there are some people that can pull it off. The lesson I learned was have a plan b, c, d, e, and f; and be very careful who you choose to work with!
STFUawards on April 6, 2009 at 6:02 am
charelsalopez – Shut The Fuck Up Award Winner.
You just had to take the opportunity to let the whole wide world know that you’re a smart human didn’t you? Trust me, we all would have lived without that comment you posted.
Bruce on May 22, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Was he really? Damn…Wikipedia left that out! I’ll have to do more research.
Jacqueline on June 20, 2010 at 9:38 am
I started my first corporation with a roommate and boyfriend, out of the house we all lived in. I would not trade those experiences for the world, but I also learned a lot of valuable lessons the hard way. Living, working and making love in the same dwellings has problems 1-1000 to deal with. Don’t get me wrong there are some people that can pull it off. The lesson I learned was have a plan b, c, d, e, and f; and be very careful who you choose to work with!