Barbara Smit

The beginning of this book was quite interesting. If the entire book had been like the beginning, I would have rated it much higher overall. I enjoyed hearing about the Dassler brothers and how their family got into sneakers. I didn't enjoy the brothers fighting that led to the split into Puma and Adidas brands, but that part of the story was still interesting.

The middle of the story was okay. It got a little confusing for me with all the children and children of children and trying to show more remember which ones went with which family. There were a lot of machinations to get contracts and other things that probably weren't so legal.

The end of the story of Puma was sad and of Adidas even sadder. But by the end of the book, I almost didn't care anymore what happened to Adidas. No, make that I didn't care about what happened to Adidas. show less

This is well-written history of the Adidas company is a delight to read. It provides a great overview of the history of sports marketing.

She lost gas at the end. Too many characters, too thinly sketched, over too long a time period. One of those books I kept hoping would get better.