Horst

"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.”"

"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.”"

"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.”"

"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."