Original subtitles

[clapper operator] Winnie, take one. Mark.

[♪ soft mellow music playing]

What's this for? [laughs]

Oh, yeah, I'm getting interviewed for Disney+ right now.

[clicks tongue] Come on.

[laughs]

[chuckles]

We're just doing some, like, Puma and Adidas documentary.

-Watch out. Oh. -[Sam] Oh. [grunts]

We probably shouldn't put that in the film.

We're finding out that they all had a dark history. [laughs]

I don't know the story about Adidas and Puma.

[in Spanish] Yeah. I heard the story.

[in English] I know enough, I think. [chuckles]

-[chuckles] -I don't really know a lot about shoes.

I just know it's kind of, like, based in Europe.

-It started in Germany? -[♪ intriguing music playing]

It started with the same family.

I always had heard that they were brothers,

but I actually thought it was a myth.

The Dassler family were makers of both brands.

-Really? -Really?

I was like, "Nah, that just sounds too much like it could be a movie".

Do the brothers get on, or…

Are they competitive, or…

They're competing…

They have a falling-out.

They split up and one went the other way…

And then they became two separate entities.

Word. That's-- Oh, that's sibling rivalry right there.

Is it that deep, though?

-You mad at me over some shoes? -[chuckles]

That's a story right there. Shit. Adidas and Puma.

How could two brothers from a very small town in Germany

create two of the biggest brands in the world?

[♪ theme music playing]

[Beckham] Shoe culture is bigger now than it's probably ever been.

[Ulrich] Puma and Adidas,

they started this and millions and millions and millions

of dollars are going around.

[Severn] The floodgates opened up.

-[man 1] Stripes. -[man 2] Stripes.

-[woman] Three stripes. [laughing] -[Severn] There were three-stripe shoes

-all over the place. -I wanted to be part of that.

[June] Streetwear has become fashion.

[man 3] Puma was late to the dance. Adidas was way ahead.

[Neymar Jr.] Puma had to step up.

Very dubious business they are doing over there.

-Big suitcases with money. No contracts. -[tires screeching]

I think anybody in my shoes would have done the same.

[Erin] We want to beat them. There's no question about it.

I heard something happened, like, with Yeezys and Kanye West.

[man 4] Financially a disaster.

"I thought my job was to run". No, your job is to sell shoes.

[Horst] They have created the world that we know today as the world of sports.

[journalist] More than a match of the world's greatest athletes,

it is also the battleground for the great sneaker war.

[Horst] If it wouldn't have happened,

somebody would have come up and written a story about it.

It's so unique.

[♪ theme music concludes]

-[bell tolling] -[♪ serene music playing]

[singers vocalising]

[Colm] Herzignagonia, or whatever it's called.

Her-zo-gen-au-rach.

Herzogenaurach is a special place. It's… it's humble.

[O'Connell] In German terms, it's a very small town.

There's only 20-odd thousand people there.

[in German] It's my home.

A small but nice city,

where you have everything you need.

[in English] It has a lot of, like, charm of the little town.

It's just so cute.

But it has a big vision.

It has a big impact on the world through sport.

It's a small town with a big history.

I mean, it's the… it's the birthplace of Adidas and Puma.

[♪ suspenseful music playing]

[Beckham] The moment you drive between Adidas, Puma,

two of the biggest sporting brands in the world,

you know, you feel that there's something special.

You turn right to Adidas or left to Puma.

There's a saying that Herzogenaurach is the city of the downcast eyes.

With a view on the ground.

Everybody, the first thing you would do is, "What kind of shoes is he wearing?"

You might not have a friendship with somebody who was working

for the other brand.

They were my friends, but then they moved to Adidas,

and now they are not my friends anymore.

I know a guy, he has a tattoo, and… [chuckles] …just the Puma.

[in German] Take a look here you can see Puma is burned in right here.

[in English] For my Puma life.

[♪ music concludes]

[♪ mellow music playing]

[Jan] Everybody around the world knows Adidas.

We are a 22-billion-euro company.

So, we are actually

the second largest sporting goods company in the world.

[indistinct chatter]

[Jan] Adidas has 60,000 employees around the world.

Six thousand of them here in Herzogenaurach in our headquarters.

I mean, I think this is really the greatest campus in the world.

I mean, just look at the buildings that we are having here.

If you have a passion for sport, as I have,

I mean, this is really the best place to work.

[Kerstin] You know, the beautiful thing about Puma

is that there's so many things happening.

We have 1,400 people and 85 nationalities working here.

As a smaller company,

it also helps us to be more familiar, more personal.

It's a quite peculiar working place because you're in this little town here

in Herzogenaurach

and Adidas is basically right behind me across the street.

So, there's a close proximity. But there's quite a gap between us,

obviously, if you look at the sales numbers.

I'd definitely say Puma's been the underdog, for sure.

I think, like, Adidas has just done so much.

[Stephanie] However, Adidas have lost a bit of their mojo.

Outside of Yeezy,

some of their other lines are kind of, like lacking

and not making the waves or moves that they expect.

Adidas today setting out a number of ambitious goals

after coming off of its worst year during which sales tumbled…

[Francine] Kasper Rorsted, thank you so much for joining us.

[Sara] So, what happened? And even your rival Puma

managed to outgrow Adidas.

If you look, we actually did grow quicker than our competitors in the US

for the fourth year in a row.

Really, what we've seen there is that Yeezy and Kanye West continue to do well,

but the rest of the line just hasn't captured the imagination.

Mr Gulden, thank you for joining us today.

Obviously, you've had a strong second quarter.

[Bjørn] We actually have growth everywhere in America

and in all the major markets.

[journalist] What is the strategic plan to take on Adidas?

[Bjørn laughing] We don't take on any competitors.

We try to please the consumer,

and if we do that then the competition doesn't really matter.

Before Bjørn Gulden joined as CEO in 2013,

Puma was not in the best shape when he took over.

From the very first start,

he was very clear that we need to sign athletes, sign football clubs,

sign national teams to gain more visibility in global sports.

This path was the right one for the company.

And, you know, the success proves him right.

[♪ serene music playing]

[Bjørn] Since my father was a professional athlete,

I… I kind of… sport was everything for me,

so I played in the youth national teams in Norway,

then turned professional very early, got injured and had to stop playing.

But I always said I'd rather be a professional soccer player…

[chuckles] …than be a CEO.

There cannot be a better thing than making money

doing what you think is the most fun, so.

I… I think when I started in 2013,

you know, Puma was not really needed anywhere.

It was kind of dead.

But then in the root of it, you know, it had all the ingredients again.

It was a great history, credibility. But, you know, it had fallen asleep.

[♪ soft wistful music playing]

I think coming out of a difficult '21, you know,

COVID closing down certain markets and delivery issues out of Vietnam,

we're now going into a year with the high order book, high demand.

So, I would actually say that compared to many other companies,

COVID helped actually,

Puma become a better player in the industry.

And we're getting out of COVID stronger than ever.

You know, Adidas has always gone in curves,

and it looks to me like they lost a little bit of the…

the momentum during COVID,

and a company like ours picked it up. You know?

[Harm] I really look back. The last two and a half years have been

pretty intense starting with the pandemic.

We had a lot of change in the company. I wouldn't say we lost our direction,

but we probably haven't reacted in the right way in some areas.

The balance of creativity and financial success is not an easy one.

A lot of people that say,

"We are Adidas, we are a 22 billion, you know, euro company.

"Everything is fine".

But if you then tell them that there's no profit anymore,

people can't comprehend to this. But that's reality.

[indistinct chatter]

[Harm] When it comes to the most profitable products,

it's definitely in the lifestyle areas, where you have a lot of volume,

the evergreens that we have. The Superstar and the Stan Smiths,

these are the most profitable products.

The Yeezy partnership, you know, with Ye, started back in 2013.

[photojournalist] Kanye, give us a wave.

[crowd cheering]

[Harm] It's north of a billion in revenue, very profitable as well.

Maybe one of the greatest collaborations in sporting goods that has been built.

It definitely helped us to some degree

to get to a different level in North America.

We want to take back market shares,

and we believe we have everything that it takes.

[♪ suspenseful music playing]

[Beckham] When you look back at the history of, you know,

these companies, it's an amazing story.

You don't build brands like these two giants

without having that real kind of rivalry behind it.

You know, people say so many different stories about the brothers,

and was there bad blood between the two of them?

Did they want to both build two of the biggest sporting brands

in the world? Absolutely. But that's what is special.

-That's what's special about a rivalry. -[♪ intriguing music playing]

[Kish Kash] So, this story all begins with these two brothers.

Rudi Dassler was born in 1898,

but then two years later in 1900, Adi Dassler was born.

Herzogenaurach back then was known as a shoemaker town.

The unique part was they in Germany were the first to say,

"Let's only focus on performance shoes".

They founded their business and called it Gebrüder Dassler Sportschuhfabrik,

which means "Brother Dassler's Sportshoe Factory".

[Sandra] Of course, they were both shoemakers,

but I think from the character-wise, they were completely different.

So, Adi was more of a calmer guy, very into sports.

[Fabian] His first love was track and field.

He was a runner himself.

He wanted to inspire

and actually innovate around product on a daily basis.

Yeah, my name is Michael Dassler. I'm the grandson of Rudolf Dassler,

one of the last members of the family still living here

and proud to be a Dassler.

My grandfather, he always was the salesman

and the businessman,

since we really got along very well in the beginning. [chuckles]

One the technician,

the other one the businessman, the salesman.

Perfect couple, really.

I think for that time they were quite innovative

because they were the first to have the idea

to put their shoes on famous athletes.

[♪ exciting music playing]

[announcer] The Olympic games have begun.

51 nations are represented here today.

[Mitch] So, if you just paint a picture of this is 1936 Olympics.

It was a very turbulent time.

This is all happening right before the Second World War.

[announcer] Jesse Owens was the fastest human of his day

and he took both the 200…

[O'Connell] The star of the games was no doubt Jesse Owens.

But on the way to Germany, it is said that he lost two of his shoes.

The Brother Dasslers were on site at the Olympic Games.

So, Adi, being the dude that he was,

stepped up and gave Jesse Owens his shoes on the side of the tracks.

[announcer] Owen, America.

Owens is ahead!

[Mitch] He did go on to win four gold medals.

Hitler did go on to be embarrassed and not want to come out and shake hands.

Jesse Owens, a Black man

who's completely demystifying Hitler's notion of Aryan supremacy.

He was the world's hero, that beacon of light.

So, this is a big moment in time,

and it was actually a big moment for the brothers

at the time as well because, you know, he was wearing their shoe.

[Sandra] Of course, it affected the business

that a top athlete was winning gold medals in Brother Dassler's shoes.

And that gave them unbelievable recognition and business boomed.

[♪ light suspenseful music playing]

[Sandra] I think it was, of course, a turning point

for the Brother Dasslers in '36,

because it was one of the biggest Olympic Games already in history.

So, this is very, very special always when we open it,

because it's the oldest shoe we have in the archive.

It's in perfect shape. It's almost 100 years old.

Both of the brothers had really, like, a passion

for doing the best for the athlete.

There was a good teamwork of both of them together.

[in German] That went well at the beginning…

then came the first tensions.

[Kish Kash, in English] There was a little bit of jealousy

starting to emerge because Adi Dassler was the most techie guy of the two,

whereas Rudi was more concentrating on sales and marketing.

Because of that, Adi was getting the props in the press and Rudi wasn't.

You know, you can see that basically

it's going to start fragmenting from there.

[♪ soft tense music playing]

[Kerstin] There was a disagreement of how

and in which way to continue to run the company.

What the reason was… Some say kind of problems with a woman.

There's a wife in the background for some reason.

Infidelity?

Sure, we were talking about that rumour.

Shit.

-Yeah, we'll check it out. [laughs] -See, you didn't say that.

You didn't tell me it went deeper than shoes.

-See? -That makes a big difference.

-It's… [laughs] -[producer] What have you heard?

I will not repeat that on camera.

Yes, there are these rumours that the wives

had some influence and impact in them not getting along.

If there's any truth… truth behind it, I don't know.

That ultimately led to them going their separate ways.

[♪ tense foreboding music playing]

If it wouldn't have happened,

somebody would have come up and written a story about it.

It's so unique.

They have created the world that we know today as the world of sports.

Plain, simple.

[Kish Kash] So, Rudi formulated his company called Ruda,

but then transformed the name into Puma, suggesting speed, suggesting movement.

[puma growls]

The logo of the actual…

Isn't that like a jaguar? Is it… is it a jaguar?

-It's a… it's a puma. -Yeah. Yeah.

-Yeah, it's a puma. [laughs] -Right?

[Sandra] Adolf abbreviates his first name Adi

and joins it to the abbreviation of his surname Dassler

and formed his own company called Adidas.

-So, I just think about stripes. -Stripes.

The three stripes. [laughs]

Leaping puma versus three stripes, eh.

[♪ soft whimsical music playing]

The city of Herzogenaurach, two parts make the name.

The second part is "Aurach".

This is the name of our river, crossing the city,

we had Adidas on the south side and Puma on the north side of the Aurach.

At the time when they split up, they split the town up.

They took that rivalry and that argument into that little town of Herzogenaurach.

[Michael Dassler] You either worked for Puma

or you worked for Adidas. You never would change.

We would not mingle. We would not hang out. Never.

The name Adidas wasn't spoken in our family.

Both families found ways to kinda avoid each other.

[in German] There were pubs where only Puma employees went.

[in English] You know, the butcher.

Bakeries. Everything was split into two.

You wouldn't intermingle.

[Michael Dassler] It was always, what are they doing?

Where can we be better?

Those two were the… the sporting goods industry.

There wasn't anybody else.

Pretty crazy. The Germans love splitting it up. [laughs]

[♪ frantic music playing, Edvard Grieg "In the Hall of the Mountain King"]

[announcer] We're in Eugene, Oregon

for the 2022 World Athletics Championships.

[indistinct cheering]

[announcer] Time once again for the best athletes

on the planet to resume their battle for glory.

We in Eugene, Track Town, USA, baby.

I'm here just celebrating athletics…

…and watch people run fast. [laughs]

[♪ intriguing instrumental music playing]

[Pascal] All of the big brands want to be involved in track and field.

Although, there's a lot of competition.

I think because track and field is really what defines a performance company.

[♪ exciting instrumental music playing]

-[Bjørn] Hey, nice to see you. -[employee 1] Nice to see you.

[Bjørn] How are you? Nice to see you.

-Welcome. Welcome. -Very nice to see you.

You know what his nickname is? The Smiley Jumper.

-Hey. -He always smiles.

-That's a good thing to market. -[employee 2] Yes, yes.

We have spent a lot of money in innovation and product.

Now, we feel ready that we have the right product,

and when you have the right product, you can start to sign more athletes.

So, we have a clear strategy in many sports to be more visible.

-Welcome. You've done a great job. -Thanks. Thank you.

[Romain] Success on the track for Puma

is bringing visibility of the… of the brand, credibility,

and then bottom line, building business.

But you need to put things in the right order.

If we want to look at it very simply,

we are here to create the products for those guys to create the moments.

[announcer] Mondo Duplantis is over. A new world record!

And if we do that right, the sales will come later. No doubt.

[Spencer] Good morning, everybody. Great day again yesterday.

Great in the hospitality. Thanks very much for everything.

My name is Spencer Nel. I'm the Senior Director,

Global Sports Marketing, Running for Adidas.

Track and field is part of Adidas heritage.

Adi Dassler, when he started out,

he was going around meeting with athletes,

trying to understand what product they need.

Let her stay and you take a small bag for her, yeah?

When you can send me an email, we take a look at athletes in October…

-[marketing businessman] Yep. -…once we know what our budgets are.

-[♪ thrilling music playing] -The battle in track and field

is really one where all the brands are trying to bring the best technology.

[athlete] What's up?

Athletes are trying to find their edge and their little advantage,

and that also goes all the way to the product.

[Adam] There's incredible competition to up the game,

up the level in terms of footwear.

The shoe is a key aspect today of making a difference

between a number one, a number two, or a number three.

It wasn't that long ago that the marathon world record was 2:07.

It's now 2:01. That means that guy's a mi--

Over a mile up the road in a marathon. That's a long way.

[crowd cheering]

[Pascal] The new technology with the foam and the carbon plate

has really revolutionised the spike.

So, internal, we have carbon, full length.

Very quick, but uncomfortable. [laughs]

-Yeah, yeah. You can-- -In other words.

[staff member] This is the one that is illegal, three point carbon plate.

-[laughs] -So this is legal, this is illegal.

-That used to be a little flat… -Yeah.

[Noah] It's got an elevated arch in it already.

[Fabian] Brands are pushing each other.

I think there is somewhat of being proud,

and to create a product that is better than anything else, right?

And yeah, I mean, we want to beat them. There's no question about it.

So, I think our products today do.

So, we're at a moment where we can, you know,

look across the street and smile for sure.

But I'm sure… I'm sure they'll come back with something and it goes on.

Yeah, it's different, you know, when you are almost a newcomer,

a comeback kid like we are.

You know, you're making quick progress because you're coming from not so good.

I'm ready to take on anybody, to be honest.

[Adam] All righty. Ladies and gentlemen,

let's welcome the fastest woman alive, Elaine Thompson-Herah.

-Very special day for us… -I know, right?

…as a brand, and very, very happy to have you joining us.

I can say the fastest man was a part of Puma family,

so I guess the fastest woman can be a part of the family, too.

[Lawton] They try and identify these… these athletes.

-[♪ light reflective music playing] -They chase them with the big deals.

They are human billboards, you know, a massive industry.

Their obsession is with having the winners in their shoes.

It's now part of our job because any time that you sign a contract,

you're probably asked by their shoe companies,

"Hey, post this real quick to all your followers".

That competition, anything is possible on that day…

-[Bjørn] And the right shoe. [laughs] -And the right shoe. [laughs]

[Noah] And you're thinking, "Well, why would I do that?

"I thought my job was to run".

No, your job is to sell shoes. [chuckles softly]

[Lawton] That's what it's all about. It's about eyeballs and selling products.

Puma knew that they had a major asset when they signed Bolt.

You know, he was one of the biggest stars of any sport in the world.

[commentator 1] They're away safely this time, and here's the big man.

Already up on Edward. Already up on Clark.

The rest of the field are being left behind.

And here comes the great man, Usain Bolt, charging down the straight.

As best they can, the other men are trying to follow him.

Bolt wins! And Bolt has smashed his own world record.

[commentator 2] This stadium is synonymous with Jesse Owens,

but in many, many years to come,

people will also talk about how Usain Bolt lit up this track here in Berlin.

-He just made athletics so cool. -[♪ triumphant rhythmic music playing]

He just brought a character we hadn't seen before.

I love Usain Bolt. [chuckles]

Kinda a freak of nature.

[commentator 2] He is a one-in-a-generation athlete,

and he is producing moments here

that people will remember for the rest of their lives.

[Craig] It doesn't matter if you like to flex or not.

Everyone knows who Usain Bolt is.

To me, that's when you've just transcended.

When I think of Puma, I think of Usain Bolt.

The two just go together perfectly.

He's probably the… the only thing I think of when I think of Puma.

He saved the company in sports, because when I came in,

he was the only anchor into performance sports.

[interviewer 1] You okay?

[interviewer 2] Just when you're ready, feel…

[grunts] It was me, then Puma. [chuckles] You know what I mean?

And if I win, Puma wins, so it was a team effort.

[Pascal] You know, this charisma that he had,

this sense of entertainment,

was exactly what Puma was looking for at the time.

We… we have become a family, so I definitely think I've…

I've helped to keep the brand alive and keep the brand going.

I mean, in a lot of ways, I got to give him credit

for being the spirit animal of Puma, the icon of the brand.

[Lawton] They put an awful lot of their eggs in the Bolt basket, didn't they?

And they struck gold.

[commentator 3] Usain Bolt, absolutely breathtaking.

[crowd cheering]

[producer] Did you ever try and get Usain under contract?

[chuckles] You seem to have inside information.

We did. Out of respect to Puma, he wants to… to stay with Puma,

-which I thought was very loyal. -[♪ reflective music playing]

[Spencer] I think every brand would have liked

to have Usain under contract.

But, you know, we have phenomenal athletes under contract,

and we're proud of them.

We're fortunate that we have the likes of Noah Lyles.

We think that he has the ability to break Usain Bolt's record.

-[camera clicking] -[Spencer] It's a changing of the guard.

[indistinct chatter]

[Lance] Welcome to America. [laughing]

Oh, thank God the wind started blowing.

It was starting to get a little hot, Muriel.

-[Noah] Morning. -[man] How are you?

[car horn honks]

[♪ suspenseful music playing]

-[Wade singing indistinctly] -Sing it, Wade. Sing it.

[Lance] Part of being a great coach is having great athletes.

I've been fortunate enough that I've had talent.

[♪ light introspective music playing]

[Lance] I'd say there's… there's a lot of talented people,

but the best of the best are the ones that…

that do this not only as a job or for the money,

but do it because they just love to compete.

All right, get it spiked up, get your build-ups and stuff done,

and let's be ready to go. [blows whistle]

Get out and set it up. [blows whistle]

Don't feel sorry for yourself. Get in position.

Hold your body posture.

If you let that butt go back, the heels go back.

When the heel goes back, we're done.

[Noah] I'm definitely in the best shape of my life.

And I'm ready to prove it.

[indistinct chatter]

[Lance groaning] It's about a thousand degrees out here right now.

First time I saw Noah Lyles would have been at the 2016 Olympic trials.

You see the ability, everybody saw that,

but how he handled himself is what stood out to me.

You ain't got nothing ugly, right?

I don't… I don't wanna see no ugly pictures of me.

Face all sagging. [chuckles]

[Lance] He has fun with it, but he also knows when it's time to work.

He was, you know, diligent in what he was doing,

took it serious. He was born to run.

Set!

When you're starting to talk world records and… and all that sort of stuff,

can he do it? We'll see.

[Noah] I have the fastest top-end speed since Bolt.

I wanna prove that I am truthfully the fastest thing

to ever walk on the Earth. I mean, who gets to say that?

[interviewer] What do you say to people trying to break your records?

[chuckles] Good luck. [chuckles]

[Noah] I idolise no one.

If I'm looking at Bolt like, "Oh, yeah",

you know, "What he did was so unfathomable that nobody could do it",

how am I gonna tell myself, "You're gonna beat this record one day"?

[whistle blowing]

[Lance] End of the track.

[Noah] Everyone wants to see a record go down. [chuckling]

For Adidas, I mean, they're gonna be happy. [chuckles]

But what they should be thinking of when I break it is, "How do we use this?"

Nice work. We're done.

[Noah] "How do we sell more shoes?

"How do we make that happen so every time they see Noah, they see Adidas?"

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[crowd cheering]

[journalist] More than a match of the world's greatest athletes,

it is also the battleground for the great sneaker war.

And for the companies that make the shoes, the stakes are enormous.

All the companies have the same goal, to get their shoes seen on winning feet.

[Sandra] Until the late '60s, all of the athletes were amateurs.

They were not allowed to do any commercials for a company

or take money for that.

So, the only thing they could get was free shoes.

[Kish Kash] And they couldn't be seen to be taking cash as payment,

otherwise they'd have got banned.

Horst Dassler, Adi's only son,

was starting to take a leading role at the company.

So, he had different ideas to his father

and was more willing to bend the rules to, you know, profit Adidas.

[interviewer] Were the brands bribing athletes

-with cash at these Olympics? -We have no proof of that.

No. [clicks tongue]

As I was outfitting athletes, I had my competitors,

so I had to go more than giving them gear.

And this created breaking the rules,

so we had what we called "under-the-table payments".

Big suitcases with money. No contracts.

Well, I personally never handed monies to athletes.

However, Puma knew that to compete, they were gonna have to do it.

[♪ exciting music playing]

Well, both brands imported hundreds of pairs of shoes

for the athletes to compete in.

Adidas, being the Machiavellian people that they are,

had a dirty tricks campaign up their sleeve.

[journalist] Adidas is throwing us out.

[customs officer] Yes, we're throwing you out.

[O'Connell] I remember very well that when Horst Dassler got all these goods

through customs,

he paid the customs officer to block Puma.

[Kish Kash] So, when the plane landed,

their shoes were confiscated by the officials.

[Ulrich] There was this kind of a contract between Adidas and the Mexican government.

Very dubious business they are doing over there.

-[interviewer] Seemed like… -Can I say this?

You… you rolled your eyes.

[interviewer chuckling] You already said it…

But Wild West show, yeah?

So, there we were with a great, charming city and no shoes. [chuckles]

[Kish Kash] Puma was screwed.

And Adidas shoes were flooding the Olympic Village.

[Art] So, David Jones, who was the Puma rep,

-he came up with a concept. -[♪ suspenseful music playing]

I decided there and then, the only way of doing it was to go myself

and try and get the shoes out.

[Kish Kash] The crazy idea was to pull off a heist,

to bust the shoes out of customs under the cover of darkness.

It was a crazy thing to do.

I was given the keys to the Great Britain Olympic bus.

I was also given two Puma bags.

They were full to the brim, 100-dollar, 50-dollar bills.

[Kish Kash] So, David arrived in the middle of the night at the airport.

[Jones] And there in my headlights were two guards on duty with AK-47s.

My heart was pumping.

I opened the door and purposely just nudged the bag out of the door.

They smiled and waved me through.

I must have got out about 60, 70 pairs, boxes.

I didn't think twice about it, actually, but in cold light of day, you do.

If I hadn't have gone,

I don't think anybody would have been wearing Puma that year.

[♪ soft introspective music playing]

[Art] David did pull that off,

and we were then able to make a very representative showing,

because among our gold medal winners were Tommie and Carlos.

Tommie won the gold medal, Carlos, the bronze medal.

They stood on the victory stand, black glove and black socks,

Puma shoe was sitting right on the stand.

[Kish Kash] The powerful silent protest that was led by Tommie Smith

and John Carlos

would become a defining moment of civil rights activism,

one of the most significant moments in sporting history.

[crowd cheering]

[commentator 1] A new world record!

[commentator 2] He didn't just break this world record,

he absolutely shattered it!

[Sebastian] U.S. market's the biggest sports market in the world.

There are… some massive assets here,

some of the most talented athletes on the planet.

Noah has had a complicated couple of seasons,

but, you know, the thought in the lead-up to the 200,

"Actually…

"this is somebody that is inching towards those records".

The 200 men's probably one of the hottest events at this championship

from top to bottom.

[Noah] World Championships is where athletes get paid.

As my coach says, this is where you prove that you deserve this contract.

-[Noah] How you doin', how you doin'? -[Spencer] Rupert Campbell.

Noah. Nice to meet you, Noah. How are you?

[Spencer] The president and CEO of Adidas North America. Noah Lyles.

-I'm gonna leave you guys. -Respect, honestly.

-I really appreciate that. [chuckles] -No, no, I… [chuckles]

[Spencer] Are we gonna put 100 bucks on it?

-100 each way? -[friend 1] Huh?

[Spencer] And we're betting on the time.

-[friend 2] Oh, okay. -[Spencer chuckles] Here we go.

-40, 50… 40, 50, 60. -Yeah, I think it'll be fif--

Yes. Wait, does the money go to the charity?

No, the money goes to the winner.

-[laughs] -[laughs]

I'm gonna-- I know… I know I'm winning this.

-You can share it. [laughs] -[laughs]

[♪ ambient bass music playing]

[commentator 1] The lure of the men's 200 finals have seen huge crowds gathering.

I promise you this, it'll be epic.

[Sebastian] This is huge for Noah. It needs to happen.

It needs to happen here.

So, there's a lot at stake for him, for sure.

In this sport right here of track and field,

if you are not winning, people forget about you.

[commentator 2] It's the final of the men's 200 meters.

[starter over speaker] Set.

[commentator 2] …very first time. There's a roar from the crowd.

It's a great start for Lyles.

Inside, no move yet from Knighton.

Lyles has got the edge here, and he's storming away.

What a moment for Noah Lyles.

It was never, never in doubt. He has smashed his personal best.

And there was no one else in it.

One of the fastest times in history. And listen to the crowd.

-[crowd cheering] -[commentator 2] Listen to the crowd.

[lion roaring]

[commentator 2] Lyles has roared back to the top.

He successfully defends his world title.

Oh, this is everything that I could have dreamed of and more.

[interviewer] Is this the best night of your career so far?

So far? Yeah. Yes, it is. [chuckles]

[group cheering]

[Noah] I believe that my partnership with Adidas

should be to create stories and moments.

"How do we make Noah Lyles the most popular athlete in the world?"

-[laughs] -[laughs]

[Spencer] One thing, Usain was a natural.

You cannot teach an athlete that. And Noah seems to be that sort of athlete.

He's expressive. He's outspoken. And people resonate with that.

And that's more than just him as being a track star.

That's him being an ambassador for both himself and us as the brand.

[crowd cheering]

[Spencer] Puma also have some of the young stars coming out of it.

But right now, it seems that that next generation

that's performed has been the Adidas generation.

We got a world record to go after!

[♪ soft music playing]

[Heiko] Sports and athletes are so much more than they used to be.

Nowadays, athletes are so much more involved

in fashion,

and the lines between the performance and fashion segments are very blurred.

Sports transitioning into the fashion world

has become a successful formula.

Some of the biggest fashion icons right now are sports athletes.

That's convenient for us

because that's how we transition performance into a streetwear

and a fashion world.

[Maria] We were struggling to get the visibility

that we were hoping at this stage of the game.

And the team started brainstorming what we could do, what we could not do.

Well, a couple of our partners are asking,

"When are you gonna go back to Fashion Week?"

And Fashion Week, for me, probably equals a catwalk.

Like we actually do a… a show again?

-I mean, it's been a… a while. -[Maria] If we do a catwalk, which one?

I mean, do-- are you thinking like New York?

[Maria] Keep the elevation in North America.

I think this is a space where I think we need to get more visible as a brand,

but we need to find someone that really help us

to pick the base of the collection and really elevate it, and…

What… what about June?

-[Maria] Oh. Yeah. -'Cause, I mean, June…

June has done-- So, she's done the collections for basketball.

June Ambrose, man.

Twenty-five years of crafting the most iconic looks in music.

[♪ upbeat hip-hop music playing, Jean Grae "The Band"]

I use style as a language, and style is emotional.

It's a conversation.

♪ Ya big dummies, yeah Jean rock a little girlie, uh-huh ♪

[Adam] Any of the great moments in music video history and hip-hop

that you can think of are likely connected to June.

♪ Hell, I've always been cool That's why I move ♪

♪ With a small razor taped to… ♪

[Heiko] She was just spearheading new trends, new movements,

always integrating culture to sports and the other way around.

There's not many people who have this track record.

That makes her, for me, like, the perfect person for this project.

We're just prepping up for the show in New York,

New York Fashion Week. We are re-entering the space.

I am very happy to be working with June on this show.

You could really get really crazy with that.

[Maria] She's extremely creative. She's very connected.

Very excited that she was the one helping us to be in New York City.

See you tomorrow, darling.

Wherever I can find ways to elevate it, you know, I will. [chuckles]

-♪ Came up on the scene, get down ♪ -[♪ music concludes]

There's some news topics we got to get into.

-Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Mm-hmm. -Right before we sat in these seats…

I would say, 15 minutes, Kanye West sent-- He DM'd Complex's main Instagram.

[Brendan] "Adidas went and brought back older styles without my approval,

"picked colours and named them without my approval,

"went and hired a GM of Yeezy without my approval.

"GM lied to my face and said they didn't have the capacity.

"Meanwhile, Adidas was copying my slides

"and making their own version of the Yeezy slide".

"God step in".

[interviewer] So, Jan, Kanye is accusing Adidas of plagiarising his designs,

copying them. Have you seen that?

Yeah, of course, I've… I've seen it.

But you will understand, it's fresh from the press.

I can't comment on right now.

Kanye has been accusing Adidas of plagiarism

and it actually started with this slide, this silhouette here.

Very similar looking to the Adilette slide here.

Adidas has not very interesting product right now,

-and the Yeezy is the only… -[Joe] That is the--

-…interesting product happening there. -[Joe] It is an issue.

[breathes deeply] Plagiarism is a… is a-- It's a big--

it's a big term.

A lot of people within the sneaker industry

see those similarities and understand why you wouldn't be happy.

They almost looked like a knockoff version of what he created.

Can't fool the consumers, especially the sneakerheads.

You can't fool us.

It's devaluing a franchise that you've spent however long

and however much money creating.

[ProZECH] Kasper Rorsted, the CEO of Adidas,

Kanye's literally been calling him out directly on Instagram.

[voice actor as Kanye West] "To Kasper,

"I'm not standing for this blatant copying no more".

Well, what does the CEO even do?

Kanye West is in the room doing all the hard work.

[paparazzi clamouring]

If he gets on Instagram and says, "F Adidas…"

a lot of people are gonna stop buying Adidas.

[♪ tense music playing]

Yeezy might be, like, a really big percent of their overall sales.

-[notifications toggling] -[♪ music intensifies]

[Brendan] Do we feel like this is over? Is this the end of Kanye and Adidas?

It feels like he's going fully nuclear and he wants it to be over.

[ProZECH] It's definitely an interesting time to be a sneakerhead.

-We are back in fashion. -[♪ dramatic instrumental music playing]

High-level fashion.

-[indistinct chatter] -But we're going to be part of it.

[June] You know, everything that we're doing today

is because of what has happened already.

I think the key topic is really Yeezy.

I heard something happened, like with Yeezys and Kanye West.

[man] Walt "Clyde" Frazier is simply a legend.

[Adam] The Superstar was the dominant shoe of its time.

They gave us a million dollars. That's very rock and roll.

[reporter] There's some breaking news from Adidas,

the German sports apparel company, as its CEO, Kasper Rorsted,

is planning to step down from his position next year,

prior to the conclusion of his contract.

[ProZECH] Kanye's got a mouthpiece that reaches…

to a lot of ears.

[reporters clamouring]

[♪ music concludes]