Adolf Dassler’s life in Germany
Born in 1900, in Bavarian mill town, in the Germany, Adolf “Adi” Dassler founded the Germany sportswear firm known as Adidas. While he was in his teenage years, he learnt how to make sport shoes immediately he returned from the First World War. However, his initial occupation was baking pastries (Berger, 2008). Luckily, his father gave him support after he secured a job in shoes producing factory; he advised him on various ways through which he could design quality footwear. Additionally, his own experience in athletics, advice from medical practitioners, and coaches of various games advised him on the best sportswear designs.
Firstly, he started by making slippers from remains of materials like old helmets, and tires. His brother, Zehlein was helpful in the way he supplied materials to his brother, for the production of Sports shoes. Adi capitalized on the opportunity that his brother was producing handmade spikes for shoes, in their workshop (Berger, 2008). This laid his foundation in the production of light footwear used during gymnastics, and soccer. By 1978, shortly before Adi’s death, his firm was producing more than 45million pairs annually. Following this move, Adi’s son decided to inherit the idea by opening Adidas in France. The firm in France competed effectively with Puma and Adidas in Germany to ensure that it had secured the market from the other side.
Starting the Adidas Company with his brother
In 1924, his brother Rudolf collaborated with Adi in the shoes production firm. By 1928, his sportswear had hit the market such that many athletes had known how advantageous it was to wear Adi’s products. Jesse, an athlete won 4gold medals after using Adi’s sportswear during the 1936 summer Olympics. This sent a signal to many athletes and players of other games to start wearing Adolf’s products. During the Second World War, Adolf served the military; his firm was producing boots used by soldiers. Rudolf went to fight and abandoned the shoe producing business to his brother. During the war, the Americans captured Rudolf “Rudi,” and this laid the foundation of their fraternal disputes. After the war, in 1948, Rudolf left the company to start his own, Puma while Adi designed the name of his to “Adidas,” the first letters of his names (Berger, 2008). The two products created stiff competition for each other; in one year, the Germany soccer team could wear puma and in the following year, Adidas. Many of those, who wore Adidas products, proclaimed that it was the best as compared to puma. Eventually, Adi’s products captured a larger market.
His entrepreneurship skills
His independence in sticking to what he wanted for his operations made his company what it is now. Admittedly, the idea of making shoes was his own; other people, like the father and brother came in when Adolf had already started. It is also clear that after his brother left the company, to start his own, Adolf, independently operated his firm and eventually managed to win his brother, who was a competitor in the business of producing sportswear. Although, he sought advice and support from others; he ensured that he monitored the management, operations, designs, and distributions. For this reason, he protected his firm by patenting all his brands and procedures in order to gain from royalties from rival firms (Trumbauer, 2003).
His life as a son to a Cobbler and Laundress could not bar him from realizing his dream. Undeniably, many entrepreneurs lack the self-confidence skills when starting their businesses. For this reason, most firms like Rudolf’s, end up collapsing. Although he started making slippers from obsolete materials like old helmets, old vehicles tires, he knew that one day he would “hit the sky” by designing and making one of the best footwear in Germany and the world. He was assured that if he could get advice from medical practitioners, coaches and other supportive people, he would design one of the best footwear (Kethan, 2011). During his time in the military, to him, it was only change of environment; he stuck to his idea of making shoes, this time for the military. After they had wrangles with his brother, he knew that even though they would part ways, he would still pursue his dream.
His determination and perseverance enables him to pursue his idea of making footwear starting from slippers. The raw materials used then were obsolete, and could not motivate a young entrepreneur to develop his business. In addition, the spirit of perseverance enabled him to save his firm from collapsing after the world was hit by the post-world War One economic crisis. In 1933-1939, the business of sports declined, and as a result, the sales volume deteriorated. However, the Nazi regime came to his rescue and gave him a financial support when they were still working with his brother (Trumbauer, 2003). Moreover, one could think that after his brother had left the, humbly brought up firm, it could collapse. He ensured that all productions processes were done efficiently, in order to reduce costs many designs were made, to shift consumers’ preference for business sustainability.
Dassler was a goal-oriented entrepreneur. Despite Highs and lows of his time in business, he encounters many challenges, but none of them sways his mind to give up; they set the pace for a strategic plan for him. After the economic crisis, in the mid 1930’s, Adi produced 30 different pairs of shoes with various fashions and designs of athletes’ clothes in order to regain his business stand. Consequently, it improved the performance of the firm making it export its products to more than 30 countries currently (Kethan, 2011)
As a way of achieving high standards in his field, he maintained a respectable rapport with sports personalities in order to influence the expansion of his firm. This is what motivated him to keep on designing different fashions of clothes and footwear to maintain high standards of operation. He is also fast in acting; he changed from making slippers to producing sportswear, within no time, he had started making other athlete’s wear. Furthermore, he had not produced military boots before; as soon as he was requested to make, he acted quickly. Many entrepreneurs take long before they adopt an idea especially if it is new.
He strategically hired a French football player, Fontaine in order to use him in his advertisement campaigns. This is a creative idea; he knew that in using some of the celebrities in his advertisement, many people would be lured into consuming his products. In order to keep up-to-date with technology, Adolf developed an adjustable stud to his products to enable players and athletes to get traction on different weather condition.
Berger, C. (2008). Strategic Sports Marketing - The impact of sport advertising upon consumers Adidas - A Case Study. München: GRIN Verlag GmbH.
Trumbauer, L. (2003). Sports around the world. Austin, TX: Harcourt Achieve Inc..
Kethan, K. (2011, January 14). Entrepreneurs Startup. Entrepreneurs Startup. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from http://www.entrepreneursstartup.com/2011/01/founder-of-adidas-adolph-dassler/
