Famous Athletes Who Wear Pumas and adidas

In 1936, Adi Dassel packed a suitcase full of sports spikes and loaded them into his car. He drove on one of the world’s first motorways from the small town of Herzogenaurach, Bavaria to the Olympic Village in Berlin. Adi was hoping to meet with the American sprinter Jesse Owens and convince him to wear spikes designed by Adi and his brother Rudolph, who ran the company, Dassel Brothers Shoe Factory together. Adi met with Owens, Owens won four races, and the rest is history. Owens became the first African-American to receive sponsorship, and Adi and Rudolph began manufacturing thousands of pairs of shoes to keep up with the demand from athletes from all around the world.

Eventually Adi would part ways with Rudolph, and Dassel Brothers Shoe Factory would divide Adidas Sneakers Heren into two separate companies: adidas (run by Adi) and Pumas (run by Rudolph). Sponsorship by world-class and celebrity athletes was always a big part of the business plan of both companies. Here are some of the most notable wearers of Puma and adidas shoes:

• West German National Soccer Team, 1948. In the first match after World War II, several members of the West German national soccer team wore Pumas.

• Josy Barthel, 1952. The first gold medal associated with Puma (as opposed to the Dassel Brothers Shoe Factory) came courtesy of Barthel, a middle-distance runner from Luxembourg who won gold in the 1500 meters.

• Wilma Rudolph, 1960. Rudolph wore adidas to the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome, Italy. She was the first woman to win 3 gold medals in track and field during the same Olympics. That year, 75 percent of track and field athletes competed in adidas shoes

• Pelé (Edison Arantes do Nascimento), 1970. During the 1970 World Cup, the soccer player Pelé famously Adidas Voetbalschoenen asked the referee to wait a moment while Pelé tied his shoe just before the opening whistle. The “shoe tying” was captured on national television, and Pelé was paid 120,000 dollars by Puma for his promotion of their brand.

• Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, 1971. When Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier went toe-to-toe in the “Fight of the Century”, they were both wearing custom-made boxing shoes designed by adidas.

• Alberto Juantorena, 1976. Eighty-three percent of athletes at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal wore adidas including the Cuban Alberto Juantorena who is the only male athlete to win the 400 meter and 800 meter races in the same Olympics.