Peace between Adidas and Puma

Global sports brands Adidas and Puma are set to make peace on the 21st of September 2009 for International Day of Peace festivities. This will be the first time in 60 years that the two worldwide leading brands will shake hands and team up to achieve a common goal.

For those who are not aware of Adidas and Puma’s origins and rivalry it would be interesting to know that they were created by Rudolf and Adi Dassler two German brothers. These brothers quite successfully built a sports shoe business called Gebrueder Dassler Sportschuhfabrik before splitting over an arguement about a shoe design that lead to the pair ceasing communication with each other for the rest of their lives.

The unity between the two companies will take place in the form of a football match between employees of both companies. This match will be followed by both teams watching a movie titled “The Day after Peace” which was directed by the founder of Peace One Day Jeremy Gilley.

Adidas and Puma have organised for highlights packages about World Peace Day and the upcoming game against each other to be shown at two German Bundesliga games this weekend to promote the event. These packages will be shown at halftime in these matches: FC Bayern Munich vs FC Nuremberg and VfB Stuttgart vs FC Köln on the 19th of September.

Both companies have released statements on the event and about their effort to help promote the International Day of Peace.

“We at Adidas are very proud  to support PEACE ONE DAY together with
Puma. We firmly believe that sport can bring the world together.
Sport has shown this at countless occasions in the past and we are
committed to the positive values found in sport: performance and
passion, teamwork and fair play,” said Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer before also adding that he is ”very much looking  forward to our adidas and PUMA  football match and I  hope that our  joint initiative helps  to raise  further awareness for PEACE ONE DAY around the world.”

Puma CEO and Chairman Jochen Zeitz released this statement:

We are uniting on this day as a  commitment to Peace Day. Our common goal  being that our collaboration today will help create awareness for the day. Kofi Anan once said that ‘individuals can make a difference and collectively we can make a major contribution’. I  believe that is the case also  for companies. And our unity, in support of Peace Day, is a small step in a positive direction as well as an expression of the united power  of
sport in a world which we are all responsible for.”

For more information on World Peace Day and its activties visit www.peaceoneday.org