1600 euros and two bottles of whiskey: How adidas bought the rights to three stripes
In 1916, a small workshop appeared in the center of Helsinki under the sign Ab Sportartiklar Oy. Skis, ski poles and other winter equipment made of Finnish birch were sold there. Her light weight and flexibility gave athletes an advantage at tournaments - first in Finland, and then abroad. In 1917, Finnish skier Hannes Kolemainen won competitions in the USA with this equipment.
The demand for Ab Sportartiklar Oy products grew rapidly. In the 1920s, the brand changed its name to the more understandable Karhu. In Finnish it means "bear" (on the first logo of the company there was a big brown bear on skis).
Soon Karhu became the official outfitter of Finland at the Olympics. Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi won nine gold medals in Karhu at the 1920 Games in Antwerp and the 1924 Games in Paris. Moreover, at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, two gold medals were taken by Karhu workers - Matti Jarvinen (javelin) and Lauri Lehtinen (5000 meters). The company then had a special system of rewarding employees for training during the lunch break.
During World War II, Karhu produced camouflage uniforms, tents, army boots, backpacks and skis for the Finnish army.
1952 was a super-successful year for Karhu. Finns dominated the Olympic Games in Helsinki (15 gold medals), the Karhu brand became more and more famous around the world. Their shoes looked like this (see the photo above) - does it remind you of anything?
And soon Adi Dassler came out to them.
In 1936, Berlin hosted one of the most famous Olympiads in history. Its main character was a black athlete Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals in running — in front of Adolf Hitler. Adi Dassler watched the races from the podium and was probably delighted: Owens ran in the spikes of his company.
The problem was that even if someone won something in adidas shoes, no one knew. Dassler's shoes did not have distinctive visual features, even experts could not understand from the podium or from the photos whether the athlete was in adidas or not.
One day Dassler came to the factory to look at unfinished shoe samples. Then they already came up with side leather strips that were inserted into spikes to fix the foot. It was customary to paint them in the same way as the rest of the sneakers. But that day Dassler saw athletes in unfinished sneakers. The stripes on their shoes were white—and noticeable. Dassler understood: this is what is needed. Now his shoes will be visible from afar.
Adi decided that the ideal number of stripes is three. But the design with three stripes has already been used by Karhu. After the 1952 Olympics, which were super successful for the Finns, Dassler invited Karhu representatives to a sports fair in Frankfurt. There he offered them to sell the rights to use three leather strips. The Finns agreed for a ridiculous compensation — two bottles of whiskey and an amount equivalent to 1,600 euros.
The story is similar to fiction, but it is written about it in the official Karhu blog and in a well-known book about adidas and Puma called Pitch Invasion (with reference to the Karhu historian). So Dassler permanently solved the problem with the identification of adidas products.
The Karhu brand is still alive. He is no longer as influential as in the first half of the XX century, but Finns still make sneakers.
Yes, Finnish Olympians are no longer tearing up the whole world in Karhu gear. But Kanye walks in their sneakers— which means that everything is not so bad even after perhaps the worst deal of all time.