Adolf “Adi” Dassler started and Rudolph “Rudi” Dassler started a line of sports shoes in Germany in 1924. They both joined the Nazi Party when Hitler rose to power. Rudi was drafted to fight in WWII and was captured by Allied forces. American soldiers suspected him of being a member of the SS (Hitler’s paramilitary force), and Rudi was convinced that his brother, Adi, had ratted him out.
Due to irreconcilable differences between the two brothers the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory fell apart in 1948. Adi went on to start his own line of shoes, “Adidas” (based on his name, Adi Dassler). Rudi started his own line of shoes, “Puma”, named after the German word for “Panther”.
