Sneaker Wars - The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and the Family Feud That Forever Changed the Business of Sport

“The two came to a secret agreement. In the eyes of the Dassler family, Adidas France owned just 49 percent of Le Coq Sportif. But André Guelfi gave 2 percent of his own package to Horst, and granted him an option to acquire the remaining 49 percent at any time. The 2 percent and the option were issued to Horst person- ally, as opposed to Adidas. In other words, unbeknownst to his family, Horst had taken over control of Le Cog Sportif. The agree- ment marked the beginning of an intense partnership between the two men.”

“To push its advantage, Nike introduced a shrewd mechanism known as Futures. The principle was that they would convince retailers to place firm orders and guarantee payments in advance. With these commitments, Nike could increase its orders from Asian manufacturers without gambling too much. In other words, they shifted some of the financial risk to the retailers. In return, the retailers who took part in Futures would obtain a sizeable rebate on their orders and could rest assured that they would ac- tually obtain the goods. In a market driven by wild demand, this was an unbeatable argument.”

“With Arena, Horst Dassler demonstrated just how hard- hitting his French team had become. Barely one year after the confrontation with his father, Arena swimwear duly made its debut at the European championships in Berlin, in August 1973. Two years later, at the World Championships in Cali, Colombia, roughly two thirds of the swimmers wore Arena. Horst Das- sler invested $100,000 in the championships, a substantial sum at the time. The money was spent on team sponsorship deals and an agreement with the organizers: the entire pool seemed covered with Arena diamonds. Speedo, the Australian brand that had previously held a virtual monopoly on the swimwear market, appeared completely dumbstruck by the advances of its French rival.”

“aides whom Horst sent out with tricky instructions. “|Horst] just didn’t care about consultation, weighing problems and costs. He took bold decisions, then it was up to us to find the means to imple- ment them,” said Ronc, who joined the company as an assistant in the export department. “He was racing at two hundred miles an hour, and we were puffing behind, struggling to keep up.””

“Oblivious to the business aspects of Adidas, Adolf continued to walk around with his notepad and to tinker in his workshop. The obsession that drove him perpetually to seek improvements for his shoes never appeared to fade. Over fives decades he regis- tered nearly seven hundred patents to his name, ranging from the screw-in studs to minute inventions that would stir only the most fanatical shoe buffs.”

“swimwear. ‘He had it all in his head, down to the most practical details, production, marketing, partnerships, and everything,” Ronc recalled. ‘“He sat there talking for two hours. He had given me work for the next three years.””

“Yearning for yet more influence, Horst Dassler resolved to build up an unofficial team dedicated to international sports relations. While all of his disciples were taught to make friends, the sports politics squad, patched together in the seventies, went much fur- ther. Their activities were geared entirely toward the infiltration of leading sports organizations.”

“The Namath hit confirmed Armin Dassler’s thinking. While his cousin apparently wanted as much exposure for the three stripes as he could get, the Puma heir had another tack. He figured that he would be better off by concentrating on a handful of inter- national and charismatic players, the ones that grabbed all the headlines.”

“Just in case his phenomenal memory failed him, Horst Dassler created detailed files for each of his contacts. Meticulously up- dated, they contained the names of that person’s closest family members and their ages, clothes measurements, special likes and dislikes; the subjects discussed during the latest meeting; and the presents they received. Horst Dassler’s aides were taught to keep track of their contacts in the same way. “At the end of an eve- ning, when you'd think we’d keel over comatose, we would still keep a pretty good diary of notes,” said Nally. “All these people were trained to take notes; they were very disciplined in giving Horst complete information.””

““Le Patron,” as Horst was known in Alsace, worked hardest of all. A workaholic by any standards, he always looked for ways to exploit his time as efficiently as possible. One of his most bi- zarre ploys was known as the revolving dinner. “Three groups of people would be set up in three separate rooms, with one lead- ing executive at each table,” one witness recalled. “Horst would have drinks with one group. Sit at the table. Then, as planned, he would be called away for an urgent meeting. He would then move on to the next group, eat an appetizer, then be called away. And on to the next group for dessert. At the end of the evening all of those guests would feel they had dined with Horst Dassler.””

“For all of Adi Dassler’s disdain, clothing promptly made up nearly half of Adidas sales in Germany. The explosion occurred at a time when the distinction between leisure and sports clothing was be- coming increasingly blurred. There was such huge demand for Adidas clothing that the company’s managers hardly bothered to take orders; the retailers would have accepted almost anything. Unencumbered by his father’s hang-ups, Horst eagerly delved into the clothing market. Just like their neighbors in Germany, the French managers sold millions of three-striped shorts and tracksuits. But this was merely the skeleton of a bustling apparel business that beat the German equivalent many times over. The French clothing operation owed its edge largely to Ventex, a former supplier that Adidas France had gobbled up. Previ- ously owned by a chemical company, the Ventex laboratory soon became the envy of the industry. “When German managers asked to be shown around at Ventex,” said Jean Wendling, then textile manager at Adidas France, “I made sure that the lab remained tightly sealed.””

“Horst Dassler’s most intimate guests would be taken down to the cellar, where they could savor anything from Chateau d’Yquem and Petrus to the finest Armagnac. On particularly in- tense nights, Horst enjoyed sharing the bench in the cellar to smoke a cigar, accompanied by a glass of wine or cognac. While the racks contained the most prestigious wines, his personal treat was the relatively obscure Chateau de la Chaise, from southern Burgundy. One of the neatest touches was to offer guests a bottle of wine from the year of their birth.”

“The problem was that, for all his impulsiveness, Rudolf often had the reflexes of a small-time family businessman: “tight and wr od generous at the same time.” “Sometimes we made mistakes be-”

“Horst barely needed sleep. Those who worked closely with him routinely received phone calls in the middle of the night. Fully awake, Horst would have just been hit by another idea that he urgently wanted to discuss. The American girlfriend of one em- ployee became so annoyed by the nightly intrusions that she once picked up the phone herself. “Horst, you are interfering with my sex life,” she told him angrily. For the next weeks her hapless partner was asked daily about the state of his intimate affairs.”

“But most of the youthful Adidas managers were entranced by Horst. They were in awe of his drive and mesmerized by his stamina, his persuasive powers, and the incessant activity of his mind. Horst was surprisingly a shy person, a weak orator who avoided the limelight. Yet he oozed a charm that captivated most of the people he met. His followers felt that he had embarked on an extraordinary adventure, and they would do almost any- thing to stay on board. “It was exhilarating,” said Johan van den Bossche, a company lawyer at the time. “We all wanted to be a part of it, even if that meant that we had to run like hell.””

“Horst himself excelled at this discipline. His phenomenal memory stored the names and faces of countless athletes and offi- cials. Le Patron would never close a conversation without enquir- ing about the welfare of the other person’s family. The interest was flattering enough, but it often turned out that Horst genu- inely listened to the reply, too. One business relation who vaguely spoke of his son’s enthusiasm for a soccer team was stunned to re- ceive, shortly afterward, a package for his son with autographed shirts from some of the team’s players. Such attentions were per- fectly in line with Horst Dassler’s motto, “Business is about rela- tionships.””

“Bill Mathis duly brought his new friend along to Beconta, but this athlete would come at a price. Namath’s agent obtained an unprecedented deal worth $25,000 per year, paired with a pay- ment of twenty-five cents for each Namath shoe sold by Puma. “It was most unusual, to say the least,” chuckled Karl Wallach. The deal proved most rewarding for both sides, as Namath en- raptured the football crowds in impeccable white Puma boots. Inspired by the stupendous Jets quarterback, players on many other teams, from the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Miami Dolphins, began to wear the Formstripe. Beconta was selling Namath shoes by the hundreds of thousands.”

“The other person behind Nike was Bill Bowerman, former coach of the track and field team at the University of Oregon, a training ground for many of the country’s most remarkable run- ners and jumpers. Tinkering in his garage, like Adolf Dassler in his mother’s laundry, Bowerman came up with astonishing nov- elties. One of them was known as The Vagina (looking scary but feeling wonderful inside). Another startling invention was the Waffle trainer, so called after the kitchen appliance Bowerman had used to mold its soles.”

“The task was entrusted to Alain Ronc, a dedicated manager in the export department. Called into Horst Dassler’s office, he furi- ously scribbled notes as Dassler went through his plans for Arena”

“Wherever he was, Horst Dassler seized every opportunity to re- inforce his friendships among sports officials or to seal new ones. While others regarded schmoozing as a tiresome obligation, Horst complied with almost fanatical zeal. This was perfectly in line with one of his adages, “Everything is a matter of relationships.” Indeed he had the right skills to make friends all around the world: he was fluent in five languages, displayed an affable manner, never asked any awkward questions, and was amazingly considerate.”

“Jacky. While the hotel bar officially closed at midnight, Jacky kept a backroom with a bar open for the Adidas crew and their guests. He would turn away other potential customers while continuing to serve drinks until Horst Dassler had finished his meetings—often in the early hours of the morning. Con- veniently, the Terrasse Hotel was located a stone’s throw from several temples of adult entertainment in Paris, particularly Le Moulin Rouge.”

“His relationship with Soviet officials was generally costly. As the company’s sports diplomats acknowledged, Soviet sports dig- nitaries were among the greediest. Christian Jannette distinctly remembered walking around the Place Vend6me in Paris holding a thick purse while a Soviet delegation raided the square’s most refined jewelry stores.”

“The move that proved most devastating for Le Coq Sportif, however, was orchestrated by the Camusets themselves. Weak- ened by heightened competition from the early seventies, they still decided to invest massively to expand their production. They acquired one plant and started constructing another one in Romilly. But under attack from Adidas, Le Cog Sportif contin- ued to lose ground in the market. They were up to their necks in debt and stock, as the thousands of products turned out by the new factories remained unsold. By March 1974, Le Cog Sportif was besieged by anxious creditors. One month later the Camusets were expelled from the company, and a court-appointed manager led the search for takeover candidates.”

“The bid was rejected most firmly by Mireille Gousserey- Camuset, the founder’s daughter, who controlled just over half of the company’s shares. Pointing to her activities in the Resis- tance during the Second World War, she balked at the thought that Le Cog Sportif would fall into German hands. Her brother, Roland Camuset promptly committed his 49 percent package to the Adidas bid. But Mireille stubbornly refused to surrender her shares to “the Krauts.””