Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - A dramatic new television series is in development to chronicle the legendary feud between German brothers Adolf “Adi” Dassler and Rudolf “Rudi” Dassler, whose bitter rivalry led to the creation of two of the world’s most iconic sportswear brands—Adidas and Puma.
The project was announced at the Cannes Film Festival, with
backing from Hollywood-based production company No Fat Ego and the involvement
of the Adidas founding family.
The show will explore the personal and professional split
between the Dassler brothers, who once jointly ran a successful family shoe
business in the small Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach before a falling-out
during World War II divided not only their family but the entire town. The
conflict eventually led Adi to establish Adidas in 1949, while Rudi founded
Puma across the river.
Mark Williams, best known as the co-creator of the Netflix
hit series Ozark, has been tapped to write the series and is
currently studying never-before-seen home videos and archives from the Dassler
family. Speaking to AFP, Williams said, “Everybody knows the brands, but the
story behind them is something we don’t really fully know.”
The series aims to tell a multi-generational family saga
reminiscent of HBO’s Succession, focusing not only on the rivalry
but also on the wartime and postwar period, which played a pivotal role in
shaping the brothers’ divergent paths. Both Adi and Rudi were members of the
Nazi Party in the 1930s, a common affiliation for businessmen of the era. Rudi
served in the German military and was arrested by Allied forces after the war,
while Adi remained behind to keep the business afloat. Their factory was
eventually seized and repurposed for the war effort.
Niels Juul, head of No Fat Ego and a longtime collaborator
of director Martin Scorsese, said he was first drawn to the story after
learning about the Dassler brothers’ involvement with American track star Jesse
Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Owens, wearing Dassler-designed spiked
shoes, famously won four gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler, defying the Nazi
regime’s racial ideology.
Juul emphasized the producers’ commitment to editorial
independence, noting that the project will be developed without corporate
interference before being pitched to major streaming platforms. “We want to
have the creative control, and Mark has to have absolute silence and quiet to
do what he does,” Juul said.
The series is expected to shed new light on one of the most
compelling and consequential sibling rivalries in the history of global
business.
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