The Dassler brothers built one shoe factory — then split it into Adidas and Puma

Any co-founder partnership faces the Dassler problem when roles are divided by function. The time to agree on a dispute mechanism, buyout formula and succession plan is before the disagreement. After, the only option is division.

Adolf 'Adi' Dassler and Rudolf 'Rudi' Dassler ran the Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik — the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory — in the small Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach from the 1920s. Their spikes were worn by Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The business was a partnership of equals: Adi made the shoes, Rudi sold them.

During the Second World War, the relationship deteriorated. The exact cause of the final break is disputed. One version says Rudi, returning from military service, overheard Adi's wife say 'the bastards are back' — referring to Allied soldiers, but Rudi believed she meant him. Another version cites business disagreements over the factory's wartime production. A third points to long-simmering tensions between the brothers' wives. No single account is documented; all are retold.

In 1948, the brothers divided the company. Adi took the factory and the name Adidas — from 'Adi Dassler'. Rudi took the other half and founded Puma, originally called 'Ruda'. The town of Herzogenaurach split with them: employees, shops, even schools divided into Adidas and Puma camps. The brothers never reconciled.

Both companies became global sportswear giants. Adidas is the largest sportswear company in Europe; Puma is the third-largest worldwide. The split created two competitors where one company had been, and the rivalry defined both brands' identities for decades. Adi and Rudi Dassler are buried in the same cemetery in Herzogenaurach, at opposite ends.

They split the factory in two, each brother taking half, creating Adidas and Puma, and the town divided with them.

A partnership of equals with no governance mechanism for resolving personal conflict left a single disagreement — whatever its cause — with only one possible resolution: division

The brothers' complementary roles — maker and seller — meant neither could run the whole business alone, but neither would subordinate to the other

The small-town setting turned a business split into a social one: employees, suppliers and customers were forced to choose sides, making reconciliation structurally impossible

The absence of any documented account of the cause — decades later, no one agrees on why — suggests the brothers themselves may not have fully understood what broke the partnership

Each partner in a complementary founding holds half the capability; a personal conflict turns existential. The governance and buyout mechanism must be agreed before a dispute, not after it.

Herzogenaurach remained divided for decades. The Adidas-Puma rivalry became one of the most famous in business history. In 2009, employees from both companies played a symbolic football match to mark the reconciliation of the town, though the companies remain separate. The Dassler story was dramatised in the 2016 film 'Duell der Brüder'.