Series ・ 10 parts

Sneaker Wars: A Century of adidas, Nike, and PUMA

The story of the sporting brands that split the world began in a laundry room in a small German town. Two cobbler brothers, Rudolf and Adi, joined forces, and at the 1936 Berlin Olympics their shoes reached the summit of the world. We quietly trace where it all started.

Start from Part 1 →

01 From a Single Shoe — The Dassler Brothers and a Small Town The story of the sporting brands that split the world began in a laundry room in a small German town. Two cobbler brothers, Rudolf and Adi, joined forces, and at the 1936 Berlin Olympics their shoes reached the summit of the world. We quietly trace where it all started.
02 The Brothers' Rupture — The Birth of adidas and PUMA The Dassler brothers, who had reached the summit in lockstep, split decisively with the war as the dividing line. Between 1948 and 1949, the younger brother Adi founded adidas, and the elder brother Rudolf founded PUMA. With a single river between them, the town broke in two. We trace the beginning of the feud.
03 The Miracle of Bern: The Final That Studs Changed The 1954 World Cup final, where West Germany beat the unbeatable Hungary in the Miracle of Bern. What decided the muddy final was the screw-in studs that Adi Dassler had prepared. We trace the day a brand leapt onto the world stage.
04 Across the Pacific: The Origins of Nike 1960s America. Former track runner Phil Knight and his mentor Bowerman founded a small company to import Japan-made Onitsuka Tiger shoes. From days of selling shoes out of a car trunk, Nike would eventually be born. We trace its origins.
05 The Waffle Sole and the Swoosh — The Birth of Nike In 1971, Blue Ribbon Sports launched its own brand under the name of the goddess of victory. The Swoosh drawn for 35 dollars, a sole born from a kitchen waffle iron, and the running boom. We trace the new champion's first steps.
06 The Sponsorship Wars — Those Who Move the Olympics and the World Cup The contest is not decided inside the stadium alone. adidas's Horst Dassler reportedly signed exclusive contracts with athletes and competitions and led the commercialization of sport. We trace the structure surrounding ISL, FIFA, and the IOC, and the beginnings of ambush marketing.
07 The Air Jordan Shock — One Young Man Turns Everything Upside Down In 1984, Nike was stuck on a plateau. The running boom was fading, and inside the company a reckless plan began to take shape: bet the firm's future on a single basketball player. His name was Michael Jordan. A small dispute over the color of a shoe would, in time, transform the sneaker from a product into a culture — a story of a stunning turnaround.
08 Just Do It — The Age of Marketing In 1988, Nike cast a slogan of just three words out into the world: 'Just Do It.' Speaking not to the performance of a shoe but directly to people's emotions, these words lifted the sneaker from mere footwear to 'culture' and 'status.' This is the story of the dawn of an age in which advertising spoke more eloquently than the product.
09 Globalization and Its Shadow — Factories and Labor Behind the dazzling brands, who made the shoes, and where? This chapter traces the shift of production to Asia, the sweatshop criticism that erupted in the 1990s, the boycotts, and the turn toward social responsibility forced upon the big three — all within what is publicly known.
10 The Street and the Future — The Big Three Today A hundred years that began with a brothers' quarrel in a small German town crosses the Pacific and arrives at the present. The revival of a near-dead PUMA, Adidas's collaboration culture, Nike's throne, and on to resale, limited editions, and sustainability. The final chapter portrays the big three today and where the fusion of sport and culture is headed.