It is a very good read, and I think most folks in North America are not aware of that brand history.
Plus in Germany it is common for owner names to be part of the brand. Adidas = Adi Dassler. Magura = Gustav MAGenwirth - Bad URAch (owner name and town)
https://www.si.com/track-and-field/2019/11/15/puma-shoe-upended-1968-olympics
I find the Puma / Adidas story fascinating!
Incredible story.
It is also amazing how Nike came out of nowhere to dominate
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Would be cool to hop in the TARDIS and get some 1968 Brush Shoes vs 1972 Waffle Shoes performance data
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What a great story- thanks for posting this!
It is also amazing how Nike came out of nowhere to dominate
In fairness, Nike (or anyone emerging out of the US) has home court advantage on 380M affluent consumers AND they have the benefit of the American based English speaking media outreach to the world. The English speaking media outreach to the world is a huge competitive advantage for American companies in terms of fan out to the rest of the world.
Interestingly if you look at the value of sporting leagues and you look at Bundesliga vs SerieA vs La Liga vs Premier League, the last one has the biggest advantage biggest they are the biggest league in English speaking England and whether you are in Hong Kong, South Africa, LA or Tokyo, you can understand the English league being exported to your market. Spanish League, German league etc does not translate…and of course US sports don’t translate to the rest of the world because the rest of the world doing play NFL or MLB (some of the world plays basketball). Soccer is pretty well globally universal, so an English league kind of wins. In the same vein, Nike was able to ride the US media outreach globally. I bit harder to do for a German brand (but obviously well done given Adidas market cap of $58Bm, Puma Market cap of $10B…but NIKE market cap is $117B).
for me the most important takeaway was Adidas “getting” the human side of transactions and power brokering and knowing all the players and having them on their side. Technically I can’t say how much better Adidas was over Puma back in the day, but technical dominannce almost never wins commercially. Its just a foot in the door. The human and commerical aspects win over in big deal making.
Bought a pair of Tigers from Phil Knight back in the day out of his car. Not many know he did a Masters paper at Stanford questioning if the Asian shoe makers can do to the Europeans what the camera optics people did a few years earlier. Things that make you go hmmm?
Bought a pair of Tigers from Phil Knight back in the day out of his car. Not many know he did a Masters paper at Stanford questioning if the Asian shoe makers can do to the Europeans what the camera optics people did a few years earlier. Things that make you go hmmm?
I remember buying a pair of the those cool Japanese “Tiger” track spikes in 1981. a bit before Tiger became Asics-Tiger…I love that entire story about the Stanford MBA guys and the “blue ribbon shoe company” importing those Asian Tiger shoes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onitsuka_Tiger
In 1977, all sports brands of the company were merged into the brand ASICS. In 1976, Finnish runner Lasse Virén won both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal while wearing Onitsuka Tigers, after having worn Adidas while winning those events in the 1972 Olympics. Today, the company is still known as ASICS and provides shoes to retailers around the globe.
Great read. Kind of timely considering all the talk about whether the 4%/next% should be banned
It is a very good read, and I think most folks in North America are not aware of that brand history.
Funny thing is, I don’t remember this story being in the book
https://www.amazon.com/Sneaker-Wars-Brothers-Founded-Business/dp/0061246581
for me the most important takeaway was Adidas “getting” the human side of transactions and power brokering and knowing all the players and having them on their side. Technically I can’t say how much better Adidas was over Puma back in the day, but technical dominance almost never wins commercially. Its just a foot in the door. The human and commercial aspects win over in big deal making.
Michael Jordan wanted to sign with adidas or Converse, as those were what he wore in school, and he only thought of Nike as running shoe company. But Sonny Vacarro pitched is as “Converse has Magic, and Bird, and Dr J; adidas has Kareem. With Nike, you won’t have to share the spotlight”
Another version says adidas passed on Jordan, because they wanted to focus their basketball marketing on centers like Kareem
Plus in Germany it is common for owner names to be part of the brand. Adidas = Adi Dassler. Magura = Gustav MAGenwirth - Bad URAch (owner name and town)
Makes me think of HARIBO. So, for those who enjoy some gummy bears during long bike rides: HAns RIegel BOnn (Germany)
But do they come with a decoder ring?