WEBVTT - Adidas v. Puma: A Sibling Rivalry 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you should know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.760 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.599 There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, There's Andrew over there, the 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:22.000 guest producer. I'm wearing Adidas, Chuck is wearing Puma, Andrew's 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.000 wearing Reebok. None of us are speaking to one another 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:29.840 right now. Yeah, it's weird. Andrew was wearing white Reebok 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:34.280 high tops with bronze pantyhose and orange Dolphin running shorts. 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:37.840 And he claims he doesn't work for Hooters part time. 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.879 Oh oh oh, yes, I like that. You didn't know 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.479 that because that means you don't go into Hooters. No, No, 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:49.200 I've seen pictures on TV. I had to go. Actually, 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:50.760 I've only been there once, and that was when I 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:55.640 worked at that awful job with the Chicken Killers, and uh, 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:57.520 it was on a stupid work trip. They made me 0:00:57.560 --> 0:00:59.640 go on and that was like the only place in town, 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:02.560 and all these yokels that I worked with were like, yeah, man, 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.160 let's go to Hooters. And I went in there and 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:08.840 I was just like, my lord, what is They were 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:12.279 trapped in time. I've been there a couple of times. 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:14.960 Actually when I was a younger, younger, man, it's the same, 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.000 I imagine it is. I'm sure. And I was there 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:20.840 on my twenty first birthday in Jacksonville because it was 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.720 the only place open. It was like it's a Tuesday 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.640 night or something, and I was like, this is this 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.520 is not the best twenty first birthday all ever. Half yeah, 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.479 and hey, we don't want to yuck your yum. If 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:34.240 you're if you work at Hooters, or if you'd love 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:41.000 going there, more power to you. Sure, sure, right, that's 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:43.200 pretty awesome that you said you don't want to yuck 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.160 any once yung. Yeah, it's funny. I was thinking about 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:48.480 a couple of weeks ago when uh, it was like 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.440 the Castanza moment when he thought of a line after 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:54.320 the moment when you were talking about how I was 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.040 crazy for not liking olives, and I got onto you. 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.760 I should have said, don't yum my yuck, right, or 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:03.520 I was just funny you said that. Because I was 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:07.240 thinking about that later on too, I thought that I 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.440 should have said, well, actually, I'm not yucking you're yum. 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:15.000 I'm yucking you're yuck, which is different. You know, think 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.040 about it, man, are you thinking about it. I think 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.120 it's weird that we both thought about that moment afterward. 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:22.720 I think so too, because usually we just go back 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.560 into our hyperbolic chambers and float for the next six days. 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.720 It's pretty great life. We have pretty nice just soaking 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.880 in our own urine. God, don't you pee in your 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.080 hyperbaric chamber? Yeah, but I mean that's how you're supposed 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:41.799 to fill it up, right, right, So, Chuck, Obviously, what 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:47.320 we're talking about today is athletic gear, sports shoes in particular, 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:53.520 and two of the most well known sports brands in 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:58.880 the entire world, Adidas and Puma. And some people might 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.720 not know this, Chuck, but Adidas and Puma were founded 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.160 by two brothers who spent many decades of their lives 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.480 not speaking to one another. And some people might even 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:13.000 know that that their arrival brands founded by rival brothers, 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.400 But I guarantee they don't know the full story behind 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:20.040 the one of the most bitter family rivalries of all 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.960 time that gave us Adidas and Puma. And it is 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:29.440 extraordinarily fascinating. There's there's Nazis, there's run d m C. 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.480 There's all this stuff all rolled into one and it 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:34.560 turns out that this is it's one of the better 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.480 stories I ever come across. That's right. And before we 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:41.400 dive into that awesome story to head off emails, I 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:45.680 know I said hyperbolic inside of Hipperbarick. No such thing 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.080 as a hyperbolic chamber could be. It's a chamber that 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:53.480 It's like, I'm the biggest chamber ever probably, So all right, 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:55.640 so let's this is a great story. And I had 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.960 heard uh bits and pieces of this over the years, 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:04.480 but it is interesting that Nazis and run DMC and 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:08.200 feuding brothers all come together too. Because you know, my Pumas. 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.880 I've been a Puma guy for many, many years, even 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.960 though I did have a pair of Adidas Superstars at 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:21.120 one point, but they're too uh flashy. No, I liked them, 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:23.880 but they were you know, white shoes aren't good on me. 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:27.120 I get get them too dirty too quick. Yeah, So 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:29.599 now I just vary my Pumas between the black and 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.480 the black suede and sort of like the olive green 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.719 swade usually. You know, Adidas makes non white shoes you 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:40.000 could try. Yeah, but those classic white Superstars with the 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.400 three blue stripes, those, yeah, those are the ones. The 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.159 shell toes. Yeah, well, I mean they have some other 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.360 cool ones to like. Gazelles are pretty cool, like the 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.520 the flat bottomed soccer shoe. And yeah, my my brother 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:54.360 was in duw I've worked Gazelles for a while when 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:56.840 I was a soccer poser. But my brother was into 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:00.000 Stan Smiths. Oh yeah, those are cool too. I've got 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.919 some some stand Smiths. They are like this blue mesh. 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:04.279 And now that I think about it, if I have 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.200 a loyalty to either one, it would be Adidas. But 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:12.320 I don't. I don't consider myself like Adidas loyal Well, 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.120 I'm a Puma guy just because they look good on 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:19.560 me and they're comfy. But I was also a low 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:24.200 top Converse All Star guy for a while. And in 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:25.960 high school, of course, in the preppy days, I was 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:29.200 all about the Tree Torrents. I never had Tree Torrents. 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.680 It was a look. Oh, I know for sure I was. 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:36.200 I was right after Tree Torns when I started getting 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.560 his shoes case Swiss We're in. Yeah, I've never had 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.559 any of those. Uh. And then what was the other shoe? 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:46.760 The the vans Um There's a particular style of Vans 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:50.160 that I really still enjoy. The slip on ones with 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.479 the black and white checks. No, those are cool, but 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:54.479 I don't know if I can pull those off at seven. 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:57.719 You could, but people will laugh at you behind your back. 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:03.320 That's already happening. Uh yeah, I'll remember at some point. Okay, well, 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:05.280 just shout it out. And plus, I just wanted to 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:08.440 cover our basis by saying as many name brands as possible. 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:14.720 Don't forget British Nights, the b KS. Um, So Chuck, 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.320 let's start the story, shall We were gonna have to 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:23.360 get in the way back machine for this one, okay, 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.599 and this is also full of urine, so that was 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:32.320 you though. Let's let's let everybody know. Um, we're gonna 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:35.800 go back to the end of World War One in 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:38.799 Germany and We're going to go to a little town 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.360 that I'm going to let you pronounce because I've been 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.039 trying and I cannot do it. And I thought it 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.320 was interesting that we're recording this now because we just 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:52.440 acknowledged and recognized the UH one years removed from World 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.000 War One. The end of World War One, Yeah, in 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.360 the beginning of the Spanish flu that killed like three 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:00.960 times as many people. Right after it. It's another celebration, 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.279 right so so we're going back there. We're just going 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.720 back a hundred days almost to the day. Yeah, and 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:14.000 so that the name of that town is uh, well 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.800 I could have done at least that good Hurtzela. It's 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.840 it's not exactly said that like that. Here, let's let's 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:27.360 play this. That's how it said. Okay, okay, So so 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:29.360 maybe we should just have that voice say of for use, 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.040 but we're not going to it. Turns out the locals 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:34.280 just called the town hurts So, sure, that's all we'll 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:36.360 call it. But it's a little tiny village in Bavaria. 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:38.880 They can't even pronounce it. No, they're like, we're not 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:40.960 even going to try. And we were born here. Don't 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:43.640 don't be too hard on yourself, Josh, is what they're saying. 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.120 Um so in Hurts. So it's a little town in Bavaria, 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:51.720 little village. There's a river running through it, significantly. Yes. 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:55.680 And in um around nineteen eighteen, one of the villagers 0:07:55.720 --> 0:08:00.200 who was born there, a guy named um Adolph desk Ler, 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.120 takes a seat in his mother's laundry. His mother ran 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:06.720 a laundry out of out of their house, and he 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:11.280 starts cobbling athletic shoes, specifically track shoes, I think, to 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:15.320 begin with, and he had a knack for it. Um, 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:21.120 he started making shoes that athletes actually wanted pretty pretty 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.240 early on, pretty much out of the gate, and he 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:26.440 started doing so well so quickly that within a year 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.160 or two, he asked his older brother, who was by 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:33.080 far the more outgoing extrovert salesmany type of the of 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:36.920 the two brothers, his older brother Rudolph, to start selling 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.520 his shoes, start kind of creating a business operation out 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:43.319 of it. And I think within just a few years, um, 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.880 they had twelve employees and they founded a company called 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:53.280 Sports far Brick Gabrueder Dassler, which they called Ghetta for short. Yeah, 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.719 so Gebruder is uh, you know for brothers. So Gebruda 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:01.360 Dossler is the Dossler Brothers company. Um, And people were like, wow, 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:05.040 so I don't have to wear my high heeled leather 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.480 sport boot any longer, pitch, I don't have to tie 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.520 some sharp rocks to the bottom on my feet. Uh. 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.360 So their nicknames you'll probably heres refer to them as 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:18.920 uh Addie and Rudy, r U d I and uh 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.200 you'll if you kind of put your head to it. 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:23.800 You can see where this is headed. This is exciting. 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.040 So uh, the laundry business wasn't going well. So like 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.800 you said, little Addie started making these shoes and things 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:33.559 started going great. Um. And it turns out they made 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:37.080 a pretty good team at first because they complimented one another, 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:39.679 uh and what they were and what they were good at. 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.800 So Addie was creative, uh and he was the brains 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.120 and Rudy was a little more extroverted and he was 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.520 a really good salesperson. Right, so they start to do 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:53.480 a pretty good, pretty good business. Um. And it's it's 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:55.800 if you're like, well, it's a weird thing to start 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.240 doing as a younger man, to start making supports shoes. 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:03.120 It turns out that hurt So is like a shoemaking town, 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:07.640 has a long tradition of shoemaking. And in for example, 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:11.079 their population was thirty undred, but they had a hundred 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:17.440 and twelve shoemakers. That's a high shoemaker to regular population ratio. 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.680 So it's not the weirdest thing ever. But they're plotting along, 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.560 they're making really high quality shoes, like right out of 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:27.160 the gate. Um, Addie had a real like I said, 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.400 a talent for making high quality athletic shoes, and one 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:34.000 of the first things they made were track shoe that 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.120 that one of these articles says looks like a ballet 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.040 slipper with some nails coming out of the front of it, 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:44.720 the front, bottom, the four soul and it was um 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:48.400 it just changed everything. It was a genuinely great track shoe. 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.760 At the time, they they people who were running sprinters 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.959 who are running track, they didn't have any traction when 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.240 they were taking off. This gave them traction and just 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:03.080 gave an immediate um lag up over the competition. And 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.120 so the athletes like really really liked the shoes that 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.240 they were putting out and the company started to grow 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.400 and grow and grow, and then I think the nineteen 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:16.000 twenty eight Olympics in Los Angeles is where they really 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.760 debuted their shoes. And a German sprinter was wearing a 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:22.080 pair of their track shoes and all he won was 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:25.360 a bronze medal. But he won a bronze medal, uh 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:30.000 wearing the Dassler Brothers shoes and as a German sprinter exactly, 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.400 so that should say at all it does. So he 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.160 was wearing these track spikes and this this helped him. 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:37.480 This got him a little bit of notoriety, but it 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:42.800 was really in Ni in Berlin at that very very 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:47.320 famous Olympic Games, where a young athlete named Jesse Owens 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:53.280 dominated and literally tore up the track wearing those uh 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:58.800 Gibruda Dassler track spikes with Hitler in the stands and 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:02.560 people are like, those shoes are amazing, and Jesse Owens 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.400 was like, it's kind of me, but yeah, sure the 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:09.679 shoes are great, but I'm also vastly superior athlete to 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.520 the rest of these jumps out here. Yeah. So um. 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:16.200 That was the Olympics that Jesse Owen's famously finished in 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.520 first place, won the gold and did another lap around 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:21.640 the track, went up into the stands and slapped Hitler 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.400 right in the face. Man slapt his little stash right 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:28.160 off that lip. So um. The fact that Jesse Owens 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:32.880 was wearing these shoes immediately brought international attention to ghet A, 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:37.480 the gi Brewer Um Dossler company. Um so they I 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.920 saw one article that said, had World War two not happened, 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:45.480 this this business would have just gone global immediately, and 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.760 it started to. But then when World War two broke out, 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:51.719 and that was the nineteen thirty six Olympics. I think 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.560 I said the Olympics. It was I think that the 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.720 nineteen thirty two Olympics that I talked about first. But 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.440 at the Olympics. Within just a couple of years, the 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:06.600 Nazis invaded Poland, and uh, we're running Germany and World 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:10.480 War two kicked off in earnest and the time for 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:16.640 sports apparel kind of got derailed a little bit. Yeah. So, um, 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.040 just like in the United States and and actually in 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:23.720 countries all over the world, Uh, the war effort was. Uh, 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:25.360 it's not like they were just like, all right, we 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:29.600 have a few companies that manufacture military needs for our 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.640 military and that's gonna be good enough. It's like, no, 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.319 we need to really co opt kind of any manufacturing 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.760 that we want to to go toward the war effort. 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.560 And certainly Germany did that along with the US and 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:47.160 and kind of everyone else. Um, and everything from Hugo 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:51.760 Boss to luft Hanza to these little shoemakers in this 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.160 small town in Bavaria. Yeah, they're they're factories were co 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:59.720 opted for the war effort basically, and what the Dossler 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:04.080 brother There's factory ended up making are something called the 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:09.640 Ponza Shrek, which means the tank Terror, and it was 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.720 modeled after the American Bazukah, which was one of the 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:18.080 first shoulder mounted recoil lest rocket launchers that had enough 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:20.600 power to punch right through a tank and blow up 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:25.000 everybody inside. They were nasty little buggers. And the Ponza 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:27.920 Shrek was the German version of the bazuka. And the 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.600 German version of the Bazuka was created in the Dossler 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:37.359 Brothers shoe factory. Yeah, it's uh, December nineteen forty three 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:39.720 is when they kind of made the full switch in 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:44.440 these these little you know, German ladies who were so 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:51.400 in shoes the week before were now manufacturing uh, German bazukash. 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:53.760 The good news is by this side because these things 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:57.880 were really effective actually, and had they been um, had 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:00.440 they been brought into the war sooner, thing might have 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.240 really changed. But thankfully, by this time, even though they 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.040 were doing the job, it was too late. The tides 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.760 had turned and the Allies were were steaming toward victory, 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:13.800 and even though they started pumping out these bazukas, it 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.160 was sort of too little, too late. Yeah, have you 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:21.000 ever wondered about the name bazuka, not until just now. Okay, 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:23.240 well I did, and I was like, what does a 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.880 bazooka mean? Apparently there was a an entertainer. I think 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.160 he might have been vaudeville, kind of a country act, 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:33.640 and he Joe, I can't remember his name, doesn't matter. 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:38.840 He created a musical instrument out of brass called a bazuka, 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:41.560 and um it was kind of like a trumpet and 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:44.600 a trombone together. It was a weird little instrument, but 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.000 he was popular enough that in the bazuka looked like 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.240 his instrument enough that it became called the bazuka. This 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:55.640 this shoulder mounted rocket launcher. Interesting, I thought, so too, 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:58.320 Sure why not? But the point is is that all 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.160 of a sudden, the Germans, who had been totally helpless 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:05.120 against the American tank divisions, were messing the American tank 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:08.520 divisions up. And the source of their their power was 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:12.360 the Dossler Brothers shoe factory. And you mentioned their their 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:18.680 seamstresses welding bazukas together. They're also in their factory there 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:23.640 was forced labor of French POWs, so they had slaves 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:27.640 and the seamstresses working together to create bazukas. To take 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.120 out the American tank divisions of the Allied tank divisions 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.080 thanks to the companies that would eventually become Adidas and Puma. 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:38.360 All Right, that's a great setup. That's only part one 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.880 into what is a very interesting story. So we're gonna 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.280 take a little break and we'll come back and talk about, um, 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.280 what went wrong with these two brothers right after this 0:16:47.840 --> 0:17:12.879 as skak all Right, So we're gotta we gotta go 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:15.359 back in time a little bit, because we we sped 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:17.600 right up to World War Two. It was just too 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:21.320 interesting to wait to talk about any longer. But we 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:25.240 need to go back to about nineteen thirty three because, uh, 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:29.639 these brothers ended up fracturing in a big, big way. Um. 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:32.680 And there have been, you know, some legendary sibling rivalries 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:34.239 through the years, but this is this is really one 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:38.199 of the greats uh. And I believe even Rudy wrote, 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.840 as an older man, the relation to my brother was 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:46.720 ideal from nineteen twenty four to nineteen thirty three. Then 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.520 his young wife tried to interfere with business matters, although she, 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.560 with her sixteen years, had no experience at all, and 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:57.800 the wall fapp again. So here's how the story goes, 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.280 is it a nineteen thirty three Addie was uh, indeed 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:05.560 married to a sixteen year old, which seems very creepy now, 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:08.399 but back then it was not the strangest thing in 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:12.280 the world. Slightly less creepy. Slightly less creepy. Well, they 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:14.920 just it was a different time. So he was married 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.919 to a sixteen year old and tried to get involved 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:22.040 in the business. Rudy was not happy about this, and 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:24.600 they all lived together. The two brothers and their wives 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.720 all lived together in the same town house, which is 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:31.040 not a great recipe for success anyway, right, You know, 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:33.040 you need to have your own place. So you can 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:36.760 imagine that all the little bickering and snide remarks and 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:40.480 just all the stuff that if you have two couples 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:44.440 that don't really really really like and love each other, 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:49.240 um living together will will accumulate. If you translate that 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:51.639 to a business relationship, it's going to be hard on 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.880 the business than it was. So there was apparently am 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.320 a series of just little things like that. But the 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:02.520 as far as the family legend goes, the real break 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:06.480 happened during World War Two when the Allies were bombing 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:12.000 the juror the the village of Hurtzo and the Rudy 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:15.320 and his wife made it made their way to the bunker, 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.200 the bomb shelter, and shortly after that, Addie and his wife, 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:22.080 I think her name was kata Um, they made their 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.360 way into the bomb shelter and when they entered, he said, oh, 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.880 it looks like the bastards are here again. And Addie 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:31.600 apparently went to his grave saying that he was referring 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:35.880 to the Allied bombers. But Rudy took it that Addie 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.439 was talking about Rudy and his wife, and apparently that 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:43.000 was the final straw. Yeah, this was true evidence that 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:47.920 things were really bad. If something is simple, possibly it's 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.320 just a little misunderstanding of whether or not the bastards 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:55.520 were the Allies bombing or you my brother and my 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.600 sister in law, right, So I mean things were things 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:00.520 were pretty bad. If this is what did it? Right, 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.600 So that that's World War Two still going on, and 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:06.439 at some point Rudy gets called to go fight for 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:09.560 the Nazis. He gets drafted, so Rudy has to go 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:12.480 to war, and the whole time he's away, he's he's 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.280 so this rift has already happened, so he's suspecting one 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:20.360 that his brother and his brother's wife plotted to get 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:23.640 him drafted. And he can't get that that idea out 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:26.399 of his head so much so that apparently multiple times 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.360 he deserted his post to go home to make sure 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.000 that he wasn't being ousted from the business he built 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:35.520 with his brother Um. And then he gets arrested for desertion, 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.400 and he's sure that his little brother read it him 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:42.879 out for desertion, and so he's arrested. He's held for 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:45.720 a while, and as he's making his way back after 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:49.240 the war to hurt So he gets picked up by 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:53.720 the Allies for under suspicion of being a Gestapo agent. 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:58.240 He's sure again this is a little brother ODDI who 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:01.200 got him this time landed in a e OW camp 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:03.879 that he stays in for a little while. And it 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:07.120 turns out he was right. There is documentary evidence from 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:12.080 an American officer who took the accusation down, and apparently 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.280 it was Addie who went to the Americans and said, 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:19.720 my brother is a Gesta. You may want to arrest him. Jerk. 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:22.440 This is the level of stuff these brothers are doing 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:26.159 to one another. Um, and the riff just kept getting 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:28.800 bigger and bigger and bigger. There's one other thing we 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:32.639 have to say, because uh, the wife, the younger wife, 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:36.560 the sixteen year old kata Um gets historically blamed for 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.320 creating this riff to think, in a lot of ways unfairly, 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:45.840 she's also the one who saved the family business single handedly. Yeah. 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:51.880 So in April, the Americans uh march into Hurts. Those 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:56.160 tanks pull up in front of that factory and the soldiers, 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:58.360 American soldiers are out there like kind of going over 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:00.600 what they should do. Should we destroy this building or not. 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:03.920 This is the place where the pondser shrucks were made. Yeah. 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:08.560 So Oddie's wife, kata comes out and she basically walks 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:12.359 right up to these uh enemy soldiers and says, we 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:17.199 only want to make shoes, We only desire to make shots. 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:19.560 And they're like, why are you talking like Colonel Clint, 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:24.320 and she said, we all do okay, uh, And that's 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:28.560 basically like she convinced them to spare the factory. They 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:31.560 did so. And not only that, the air the Air 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:34.520 Force US Air Force set up operations there at their 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:39.160 air base and realized that they really liked these shoes. Well, 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:41.120 they found out that this was the company that made 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.000 Jesse Owen's famous track shoes. Yeah, and so they went 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:46.919 off the charts. They started getting these huge orders for 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:51.880 sports teams, American sports teams because of this. So this 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:56.240 is all going on. Um, it's all starting while Rudy's 0:22:56.280 --> 0:22:59.200 off in the pow camp because his brother rated him out, 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:01.399 and the is this all of a sudden is starting 0:23:01.400 --> 0:23:04.879 to turn international like like like you said, people around 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:07.080 the world are taking notice of this thanks to the 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:09.560 American g i s who were coming back with this 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:15.359 um gheta sportswear. Um. And when when Rudy comes back, 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:17.679 it's done. His brothers rated him out. There was the 0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:20.680 whole thing in the bomb shelter, and the brothers split 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:24.560 the company that they built together. They split, get Bruder, 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:29.480 Tessler and or Dostler and they go off and found 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:33.880 their own companies. Yeah, fifteen years after that bunker incident, 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:36.800 so it was it took a long time to finally 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:40.320 boil over. And in between there was another war. They 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:44.320 were not good Nazis, we should point out, uh kind 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:46.440 of you know, there were members of the Nazi Party 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:48.639 and Rudy did get drafted. But like he said, he 0:23:48.680 --> 0:23:51.480 deserted his post a lot and they you know, they 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:54.600 really did just want to sell shoes. Right, He's like 0:23:54.680 --> 0:23:59.399 Dwight Shrewts uncle or grandfather who spent a lot of 0:23:59.400 --> 0:24:03.719 the war in Allied pow camp. That's right. So, like 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:07.399 you said, they split up the company. And we mentioned 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:09.560