Jesse Owens put Adidas in front

Press, 17 February 1983, Page 25

Jesse Owens put Adidas in front

By Robert Woodward NZPA-ReuterHerzogenau-rach. West Germany When the black American. Jesse Owens, won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, he wrecked Hitler's ideas of Aryan superiority. but put two German brothers who made his shoes on the road to a fortune. The success story of Adidas. now the world's largest sports shoe company, had started a few years before in a kitchen in the small Bavarian town Herzogenaurach, where Alfred Dassler made his first pair of shoes on a cutting ' machine driven by

brother Rudolf riding a static “bicycle.” Their shoes were worn for the first time at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. Four years later the first Olympic medal, a bronze, was won in Dassler shoes, but Owens’ triumph was the real breakthrough. Aided by it, the company has grown from a two-man operation to one of West Germany’s largest private concerns and an international market leader so dominant that 80 per cent of competitors at the last Olympics chose its equipment.

Now, with the Olympics in Los Angeles only 17 months away, a strong challenge is coming from Nike, the United States firm, but Adidas is confident it can stay ahead. It has been chosen as the official equipment supplier for the 1984 games. Soon after Germany's de-

feat in the Second World War the Dasslers were back in business, making shoes out of tent canvas and bits of plastic previously used to build petrol tanks for armoured cars.

But the two brothers parted company in 1948 after a monumental row. Rudolf took half the firm's machinery and workforce to found the Puma sports equipment firm, now the world's third biggest sports shoe company, on the opposite bank of the river in Herzogenaurach.

The two brothers never exchanged another word although they are buried in the same churchyard overlooking their medieval home town.

The bitter rivalry between the two firms is now said to be a thing of the past but in two hours of talks, Adidas officials never once mentioned the name of Rudolf Dassler. Alfred “Adi” Dassler founded the firm Adidas soon after the split, and set about rethinking the basics of sport shoemaking. A perfectionist, he constantly harried the stars for advice and criticism of Adidas equipment, building a reputation for quality and attention to detail that partly explains his success.

The Dassler brothers founded their business on the maxim: “it’s not advertising that counts — it's winners," but Adidas tries to back the winners by spending some 5 per cent of annual turnover on promotion. Believing that sales benefit more from performances on the field than by advertising in the media and around stadiums, it uses a large chunk of this to contract teams and individual players to wear Adidas clothes.

And every one of them carries the company trademark of three parallel stripes, an instantly recognisable advertisement with every step they run. The 500 athletics world records set in Adidas shoes, the blanket coverage at the Olympics, the 60 per cent of players in last summer’s soccer World Cup who wore Adidas boots, all help persuade'amateur sportsmen to choose Adidas, the firm believes.

As a result, it now employs around 10,000 people world wide, producing 700

separate sports articles and 280.000 pairs of shoes daily.

Adidas is still a family business, maintaining the founder's traditional silence on financial details. But turnover is estimated by industry sources at about SNZI2OO million. Adi Dassler's widow. Kaethe, heads a managing group made up of her son and four daughters. Company sources admit there have been clashes of personality in the past, adding that the lack of a named successor to Kaethe Dassler may cause problems in the future.

But a more immediate challenge is coming from Nike, which built up its sales and reputation on the jogging boom in the United States.

Nike’s recent growth has been extraordinary, with turnover rising from SI4M in 1976 to ?694M in 1982, and a current workforce of 3600.

Adidas at first regarded jogging as a purely North American fad and company spokesman, Michael Riehl, said that the firm was caught on the. hop by its popularity in Europe. “Nike is currently our biggest competitor, especially in the United States,” said Mr Riehl.

“A great deal of their equipment is produced in the Far East and is therefore cheaper. But we believe customers prefer Adidas quality,” he said.