Way before there was a Nike, there was Adidas and Puma. The basketball shoe wars of today are echoes of the battles that took place between two rival German shoe manufacturers. And in these battles emerged a hugely lucrative sports marketing business that benefited both maker and athlete. At the Melbourne Summer Games in 1956, the son of Adidas owner, Horst Dassler, convinced officials to prevent the shipment of Puma shoes from passing through Customs. At the same time, the Adidas shipment came through allowing him to give away shoes to eager Olympians. When American sprinter Bobby Morrow won three gold medals in Melbourne, he was wearing a free pair of Adidas running shoes. When Americans saw Morrow and his triple-striped shoes on the cover of Life Magazine, Adidas sales jumped.
In 1964, the human bullet, Bob Hayes was in the middle of a bidding war between the two companies. By 1968, it became common practice for athletes to get paid by Adidas and Puma under the table for wearing their shoes, and the more famous you were, the more cash you got. Adidas had exclusive rights to set up shop in the Olympic Village at the Mexico City Games.
Sports Illustrated at the time reported that runners would receive cash payments of $100,000 or more. Hundreds of thousands of dollars pales in comparison to the tens of millions athletes receive today to endorse sneakers. But the hugely lucrative world of sports marketing was born of the war between Adidas and Puma.