Puma: Sole Survivor

Both athletic star and fashion must-have, Puma has sprinted in Olympic stadiums and on Hollywood red carpets

When Rudi and Adi Dassler began hand making athletic-training shoes in 1924 in their family's laundry room in Herzogenaurach, Germany, they had no idea their efforts would someday lead to a full-fledged factory, Dassler Brothers Sports Shoe, producing more than 30 styles for 11 sports, including the first tennis sneaker. By 1936 the brothers were driving suitcases full of their coveted shoes to the Berlin Olympics, where they would persuade American Jesse Owens to sport their product. (He eventually won four gold medals wearing Dassler shoes.) Business boomed, and by the start of World War II, the Dasslers were producing 200,000...

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