Rudolf Dassler's Puma: A Laundry Room, a Bomb Shelter and Pelé's Laces

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Rudolf Dassler was born in 1898 in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, the son of a shoe factory worker and a mother who ran a laundry. After service in World War I and sales jobs at a porcelain factory and a Nuremberg leather trader, in 1924 he and younger brother Adi started the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory in their mother's laundry room, pedaling a stationary bicycle for power when the town's electricity failed. At the 1936 Berlin Olympics they persuaded Jesse Owens to wear their spikes, he won four gold medals, and sales reached about 200,000 pairs a year before World War II.

Both brothers joined the Nazi party, the factory turned to military boots, and in a 1943 bomb shelter Rudolf took Adi's remark about the bloody bastards being back as aimed at him. Detained by American soldiers after the war over alleged Waffen SS ties, he became convinced Adi had turned him in. In 1948 the company was dissolved, Rudolf moved across the Aurach river and named his firm Ruda, then Puma, and the town split into Puma and Adidas families. With national coach Sepp Herberger he developed the Super Atom boot with screw-in studs, and by 1970 the rivalry had passed to sons Armin and Horst.

• Herzogenaurach was nicknamed the town of bent necks because residents checked each other's shoes before speaking.
• Puma paid sprinter Armin Hary, who won 100-meter gold at the 1960 Olympics in Pumas, then wore Adidas on the podium.
• Puma broke the Pelé Pact at the 1970 World Cup, reportedly paying Pelé $120,000 to tie his Puma King boots on camera before kickoff.
• Tommie Smith and John Carlos had their Puma Suedes on the podium during their 1968 Olympic protest.
• The 1973 Clyde for Walt Frazier crossed into hip hop and skate culture, and Rudolf's sons sold their stake in 1989.