Sneaker Wars : The Enemy BroThers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and The Family Feud That Forever Changed The Business of Sports

Very interesting and entertaining read. I learned a lot about the history of most of the omnipresent sports brands and the evolvement of sport sponsoring. The book covers many years and therefore picks certain events or circumstances to get more into detail with. Also seems to focus more on Adidas than on Puma. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it a lot.

I bought this book to learn about the rivalry between Adidas and Puma but I got much much more. This is a history lesson about the business or commercialization of sport in general. How did the money involved in sports went from just pocket change to multiple of billions of dollars, as we know it now. This book in an intriguing way interweave the story of sport shoe manufacturers like adidas, puma, Nike, Reebok with the story of organized sporting events like Olympics and football world cups and later adds a few strings of fashion and leisure wear. This is a must read for all the sports buffs out there. You will know how things evolved over time. This is one fascinating read.

Sneaker Wars by Barbara Smit is a truly enjoyable page-turner, a mixture of business, sports and history in one. One learns a great deal about both the rise and decline of the two great German apparel companies, Adidas and Puma, and how the two businesses survive in their respective industries along with other competitors such as Nike and Reebok. Both companies were launched by two rival German brothers in the Franconian town of Herzogenaurach and are headquartered there to this day and both initially became major popular businesses by manufacturing shoes for sports use, especially soccer. This led to payments to both sports organizations, franchises and athletes getting paid to advertise and use their products and eventually creating the high paying sports world we know today. However, both companies declined for similar and different reasons, particularly in the seventies and eighties to the benefit of apparel corporations from the US and UK (Nike and Reebok). Nevertheless, both rose up again and remain major players in their industry.

I love the book

Great book, full of data and new knowledge on the Dassler family and Sports Marketing in general.