Adolf and Rudolf

When I first met Patrick, BFF for life, I mentioned that I has a tennis shoe fetish. This was not a literal sneaker fetish. I have a laundry list of those fetishes, but shoes is not on that list. It was more a figurative, almost spiritual need to have cool sneakers. In my last move a lowered my inventory from fifty (literally) to about ten pairs (figuratively speaking.) I also had shifted my Puma allegiance to Adidas. This had everything to do with what drives most of my motivations in my life, the seething hatred of Nazis.  I this case it is the story of Adolf a.k.a. Adi and Rudolf Dassler.  

The story of the Dassler brothers came into my desire for cool gym shoes.

These Brothers, had a well-established athletic shoe company (their shoes were worn by athletes in the 1936 Olympics) before they started feuding. Rudolf never gave up on a suspicion that his brother Adi was behind his conscription into the army. Selling out his brother into a conscripted fighting role with German forces in Poland. This led to Rudolf’s imprisonment by the Allis when Poland was liberated. So, Rudolf was drafted for the war and served his time on the frontlines of the battle. On the other hand, the German government had deemed Adolf’s usefulness as a shoemaker as more necessary, and so he was not sent to fight for Germany. Rudolf was very angry about this and saw it as his brother making money and selling shoes, while he was on the frontlines with his life on the line. A jerk brother move selling shoes while Rudolf was fighting a war. Not only did this make him angry, but he believed his brother Adi had something to do with why he wound up there. So when the war ended, Rudolf told the Allies that Adi assisted the Nazi war effort.

In fact after the war ended, the Allies wanted to take revenge on the remaining Nazi soldiers. This meant that Rudolf had to plead his case to the authorities. His brother Adolf snitched on him that he was working with the Nazis, and this caused Rudolf to be imprisoned for another year, while Adolf was making profits. Rudolf tried to snitch on his brother as well, but Adolf’s charges were dropped. This essentially ended the Dassler brothers.

Adolf became Adidas and Puma was started by Rudolf. Over the years I have aligned my alliance to Puma then Adidas depending on the latest paper I have read about the story. Somehow determining which brother was less-Nazisish. I mean, I could avoid the whole situation and buy Nikes, but ew no. What’s the fun in that.