He is the brains behind the one of the world's most famous athletic shoe and is the brother of Rudolf Dassler, founder of the label Puma. Adolf "Adi" Dassler was the founder of the German sportswear company Adidas. He was born in West Germany in the year 1900 and had a younger brother by the name of Rudolf Dassler. Equipped with the skill to fix shoes, he started to produce his own sports shoes in his mother's laundry after his return from World War 1. His father, Christoph, worked in a shoe factory, and the Zehlein brothers, who produced the handmade spikes for track shoes in their blacksmith's shop supported and encouraged Dassler to pursuit a business in shoe making. In July 1924, Adolf along with his brother, Rudolf established a shoe making company and it was named Gebruder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory). At the 1928 Olympics, the brothers designed shoes for the athletes, laying foundation for the international expansion of the company. During the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Dassler equipped an American athlete, Jesse Owen, with his shoes and the athlete went on to win 4 gold medals in the year he wore Adi's shoes. Both brothers were keen supporters of Hitler and they joined the Nazi, with Rudolf reputed as being the more National Socialist. With his brother intimately involved and an adamant supporter of the Nazi, he was drafted, while Adi stayed behind to produce boots for the Wehrmacht (unified armed forces of Germany).The war exacerbated the differences between the two brothers. Rudolf was captured by American troops, and was suspected of being a member of the SS (a major paramilitary organisation under Hitler), information supposedly supplied by none other than his brother Adi. In 1948 the rift between the brothers grew wider. Rudolf jumped ship to found his own company, Puma, on the other side of town, and Adolf Dassler renamed the company Adidas after his own nickname (Adi Dassler). In 1973, Adolf's son Horst Dassler, under the leadership of his father, founded Arena, a company that produced swimming equipment. After Adi's death in 1978, Horst and his wife Kathe took over the management. Horst died nine years later, in 1987. Adidas was transformed into a private limited company (a company in which the liability of members or subscribers are limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company) in 1989, but remained family property until its IPO (initial public offering) in 1995. "You need good thinkers around you. Without them, you will go broke."-Adolf Dassler (initial public offering). What we can take from this lad is merely the enthusiast and dedication for what you passionate about. So next time you walk past a cobbler, think of the great Adi Dassler.