The Street and the Future — The Big Three Today

Herzogenaurach. Across the Aurach River that flows through a small German town, the brothers turned their backs on each other. Older brother Rudolf’s PUMA, and younger brother Adi’s Adidas. A story that began with a single pair of shoes soared into the world with the Miracle of Bern, and across the Pacific gave birth to a new king named Nike.

That hundred years now arrives at the present. What face does each of the big three wear, in its own place?

PUMA, on the brink of death, came back to life

Of the big three, the one that lived through the most dramatic rise and fall may be PUMA.

After the era of founder Rudolf, PUMA fell into management trouble from the 1980s into the early 1990s, and was on the verge of losing its luster as a brand. It was then that Jochen Zeitz appeared. Having joined in 1990, in 1993 he became chairman and CEO at just thirty years old — said to be the youngest head ever to lead a listed German company.

Zeitz’s strategy was to remake PUMA from a mere sporting-goods maker into a brand that fused sport, lifestyle, and fashion. He brought in spirited designers such as Jil Sander and Yasuhiro Mihara, and pushed athletic shoes up into fashion items to be worn in the city.

This revival showed in the numbers, too. Under Zeitz, PUMA’s stock price rose sharply over more than a decade, and in 2007 the French luxury group Kering reportedly came to acquire a majority of its shares. The wildcat that had stood at death’s door had supplely breathed back to life.

Collaboration as culture, Adidas’s rediscovery

Adidas turned its own past into its greatest weapon.

The many masterpieces that had once made the Miracle of Bern and the history of soccer, Adidas re-gathered under a line called “Originals.” Models of yesteryear such as the Stan Smith and the Superstar began to shine again — not as competitive equipment, but as icons of the street. The Stan Smith in particular became such a staple that it remains on record as one of the best-selling sneakers in the world.

And Adidas pushed forward a “collaboration culture,” joining hands with talents outside the brand. Musicians, designers, street brands — partnering with them gave a single pair of shoes both story and rarity.

Among them, the one that radiated the greatest presence was said to be “Yeezy,” made with the musician Kanye West (who later worked under the name Ye). This line, which generated lines and frenzy every time it was released, came to symbolize the possibilities of collaboration. But in 2022, Adidas reportedly cut off the partnership over Ye’s discriminatory remarks. That this episode brought into relief how glory and peril lie back to back.

Nike’s throne, and the pair that gets resold

Nike, the new king come from across the Pacific, went on standing at the summit thereafter.

The method that Air Jordan had pioneered — “sell not a product but a story” — was honed within Nike. Limited models, lottery sales, ties to athletes and culture — Nike became a company that designed the very emotion of wanting.

One outcome of that is the sneaker “resale market.” Hard-to-get limited models came to be traded at prices far above retail, and secondary distribution platforms like StockX reportedly grew into an enormous market. An age had come in which a single pair of sneakers was spoken of, at once as something to wear and as an object of investment and assets.

Toward the next hundred years, sustainability as homework

Beneath the glittering present, the question of “the responsibility to make” seen in Chapter 9 still flows.

Make in great quantity, consume in great quantity, and at times resell in great quantity. Within that cycle, the big three all came to declare consideration for the environment. PUMA is said to have worked early on a framework to make environmental impact visible; Adidas put forward models using recycled materials, and reportedly advanced moves to adopt regenerated material even in the staple Stan Smith. Nike, too, has sought through rethinking materials and methods to reduce waste and environmental impact.

Sustainability is no longer an ornament for advertising. It has become unavoidable homework for remaining a brand through the next hundred years as well.

Here, let us gather a century’s journey onto a single sheet.

The river still flows there

The Aurach River of Herzogenaurach still flows quietly. On both banks of that river, which once split the brothers and the town in two, Adidas and PUMA fly their separate flags again today. And from Oregon across the Pacific, Nike watches over that battle.

A brothers’ quarrel that began with a single pair of shoes became the birth of brands, swayed the outcomes of sport, moved the Olympics and the World Cup, became the culture of the street, and arrived at a present in which “how you make it, and how you face it” is the question. The sneaker wars were, in the end, perhaps a story of what people have entrusted to sport, to victory, and to being themselves.

The battle is not yet over. In the place where sport and culture melt together, the big three take, today as well, a step toward the next hundred years. And at their feet, there is always a single pair of sneakers.

【Sneaker Wars: A Century of adidas, Nike, and PUMA — End】

Thank you for reading this far. From the bottom of my heart, I am grateful that you stayed with this hundred-year journey, which began in a small German town, all the way to the end. The next time you tie your shoelaces, if you remember, just a little, the long story that runs through that single pair — there could be no greater joy for a writer.