Breaking the contract with Kanye West, falling sales in China… To overcome these disappointments, the brand recruited its new boss at Puma, its worst enemy. An admission of weakness.
It’s the most unlikely transfer in sports business. And the shining sign of the great weakness of Adidas. Second sports equipment manufacturer in the world behind the American Nike, the Bavarian firm welcomes this January 2 a new general manager, Björn Gulden, whom it recruited from Puma… its neighbor, but above all its hereditary enemy. In Herzogenaurach (Germany) where they are buried, the Dassler brothers – Adolf and Rudolf, known by the diminutives of Adi and Rudi – must have turned in their graves when this appointment was announced.
Associated with their beginnings in the manufacture of sports shoes, the Dasslers got angry to death after the Second World War. Each on their side, they created in 1949 two rival companies: Adidas (contraction of Adi Dassler) and Ruda (contraction of Rudi Dassler), which quickly took the name of Puma. In 2009, the two brands certainly organized a reconciliation football match in Herzogenaurach, where the employees of the two companies…
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