Got Blue and Black Cause I Like to Chill and Yellow and Green When It's Time to Get Ill

"The brothers Dassler were aided immensely by Hitler’s emphasis on sports; by the time of the Berlin Olympics in 1936, German athletes of all ages and skills were wearing the Dasslers' 'boots,' as Smit calls them. But Adi especially also had an understanding of the importance of getting top athletes, the ones who generated the most excitement and publicity, to wear his sneakers. He didn’t pay any money for endorsements back then—nobody did—but he did work to get his shoes to the athletes who mattered. Early on, he befriended the German track-and-field coach—and wound up outfitting many notable German athletes. And during the Olympics, he even managed to get a pair of his sneakers to Hitler's nemesis, Jesse Owens, who won three gold medals wearing shoes made by Adi Dassler."

In The New York Times, Joe Nocera reviews Barbara Smit's Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and the Family Feud That Forever Changed the Business of Sports.