Peace One Day, September 21, 2009 – Adidas and Puma Celebrate

How are you going to celebrate Peace One Day on September 21?

Well, it looks like to Adidas and Puma are going to do it their way, 60 years later.

ADIDAS is an acronym for “All Day I Dream About Sex Sports”… just kidding, we all know it’s for the 2 German brothers Adi and Rudi Dassler, with “ADI” and “DAS”.  Rudi Dassler went on to form Puma in 1948.

The first 40 years of their painful history can be traced back where the two brothers, Adi and Rudi Dassler, ended up torn apart due to World War II, personality and family differences.  The next backlash occurred when NIKE and Reebok overtook them in market share in the 1980s!

After 60 years, the family feud that made Puma and Adidas is over as reported by The Independent which coincides with Peace One Day.

Today, however, after six decades apart, the present day bosses are to bury the hatchet in a highly symbolic display of reconciliation, shaking hands as part of a pioneering peace initiative. To consolidate the rapprochement, workers from the two firms will then play football together, breaching a divide that has existed since an argument between the two brothers as they left an air raid shelter during the Second World War. Chief executive of Adidas Herbert Hainer said he was proud to be taking part in the project, entitled Peace One Day, which is the brainchild of the German film-maker Jeremy Gilley.

 

"We firmly believe that sport can bring the world together. Sport has shown this at countless occasions in the past and we are committed to the positive values found in sport: performance and passion, teamwork and fair play," he said.

For a good read on the history and feud of Adidas and Puma, read Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and the Family Feud That Forever Changed the Business of Sports

Today, Puma is laughing all the way to the bank with the early signing of Usain Bolt when no one else wanted to sponsor him.

Peace is a good thing.  Trust me on that.