The bitter family feud that led to the creation of global sportswear giants Adidas and Puma is set to be dramatized in a new television series, producers announced Sunday. The story centers on the intense rivalry between brothers Adolf “Adi” Dassler and Rudolf “Rudi” Dassler, whose split in the 1940s not only divided their family but also their small German hometown of Herzogenaurach.
The series is backed by Hollywood-based production company No Fat Ego, known for collaborations with acclaimed filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese. The project has the full blessing of the Dassler family, owners of the Adidas empire. The show aims to reveal the lesser-known, personal saga behind two of the most famous sportswear brands in history.
Mark Williams, the award-winning scriptwriter behind Netflix’s hit series “Ozark,” has been tasked with developing the screenplay. Williams is currently delving into rare family archives, including home videos and memorabilia, to authentically capture the story. He described the project as a “Succession-type drama,” focusing on multi-generational family conflict and corporate power struggles.
One of the most challenging aspects for the series will be portraying the brothers during the fraught World War II period. Both Adi and Rudi were members of the Nazi Party, a fact that reflects the business environment in 1930s Germany. Rudi served in the military and was detained by Allied forces after the war, while Adi remained home, working to keep their shoe company alive. During the war, their factory was repurposed as a munitions plant.
No Fat Ego’s head, Niels Juul, was drawn to the story partly because of Adidas’s historic role in outfitting Jesse Owens, the African-American athlete who famously defied Nazi racial ideology by winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Adidas’s innovative spiked shoes played a key role in Owens’s success.
The producers are committed to maintaining full creative independence, aiming to produce a gripping and honest exploration of one of sportswear’s most dramatic origin stories before offering the series to streaming platforms.
