How Olympic shoes influenced the history of Nike, Adidas, Puma and Reebok

From Jesse Owens' role in adidas and Puma's launch to Nike's Moon Shoes, the Games have transformed trainers

Jesse Owens, left, at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin wearing Dassler shoes made by the two brothers who would eventually form adidas and Puma. AP

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For the footwear industry, there is no bigger event than the Olympic Games.

Every time the global sporting event convenes, the world’s sportswear giants debut their latest innovations, knowing that each achievement will draw attention to the trainers that the athletes were wearing when they accomplished the feat.

This is no new trend. In fact, without the Olympics, the footwear industry might look dramatically different than it does today.

How Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympics helped launch adidas and Puma

In 1936, two German brothers named Adolf (Adi) and Rudolph (Rudi) Dassler were working on a sportswear company called Dassler Brothers Sports Shoe Factory, which they’d founded in 1924, desperate to take things to the next level.

In previous Olympic Games – 1928 in Amsterdam and 1932 in Los Angeles – gold medal winners had been wearing Dassler track shoes, but this had failed to make the difference the brothers had hoped for.

The 1936 Berlin Games offered a different opportunity and Adi Dassler, in particular, knew it. German ruler Adolf Hitler had emphasised sport as a way of illustrating his theories of racial supremacy, and the Berlin Olympics were intended to be the showcase.

The Germans were to all wear Dassler footwear, as the brothers had reportedly been pressured to join Nazi party to save their business. (Rudi was reportedly said to be the true Nazi believer among the brothers.) However, Adi had someone else in mind who could increase the brand’s international exposure – Jesse Owens, the American track-and-field star.

American athlete Jesse Owens broke records at the 1936 Games wearing Dassler shoes. AP

Adi Dassler approached Owens in the Olympic Village with a purpose-built innovative product, made of sturdy leather and handmade spikes. Owens was enamoured, wearing the shoes throughout the Games and winning in unprecedented fashion, helping to change the course of history in more ways than one.

Years later, when American troops learnt that the Dassler factory had made the shoes Owens wore during his Olympic victories, they allowed the firm to continue operations, with many US soldiers becoming customers, leading to increased international sales.

Adi and Rudi eventually split, with Adi forming adidas and Rudi forming Puma in the late 1940s – both moves that probably would not have happened without Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympics.

For both companies, the Olympics have remained a key part of their journeys, from an innovation and brand-building perspective with consciously crafted moments such as at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

At that year’s Games, swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals – setting seven world records in the process – and during the medals ceremony held up his Adidas Gazelles, which he called “my good luck shoes”.

Chariots of Fire: Reebok’s Olympic ancestor

One of the first major innovations in the shoe world made its debut 100 years ago, at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.

That year, JW Foster & Sons, a shoe company founded in Bolton, England in 1895 by Joseph William Foster, introduced its revolutionary running pumps, which pioneered the use of spikes on their soles.

The most notable wearer of the shoes that year was runner Harold Abrahams, who became the 100m champion, with his story later immortalised in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire.

British sprinter Harold Abrahams crosses the finish line in 1924 wearing JW Foster & Sons track shoes. Getty

The company gained international fame as a result, thriving on the back of that success for years until adidas and Puma entered the market and pushed JW Foster to the side.

At that point, Foster’s grandsons were frustrated that their suggestions on how to compete were being ignored by others in the company, leading them to form Reebok in November 1958.

From Nike’s Moon Shoes to Michael Johnson’s gold shoes

While Nike may be the biggest footwear company in the world in 2024, the brand had very humble beginnings in 1964, when it was founded by a track athlete named Phil Knight and his coach, Bill Bowerman, in Eugene, Oregon.

In its initial years, it was called Blue Ribbon Sports, and acted primarily as a distributor for the Japanese shoe maker Onitsuka Tiger. But in 1971, Bowerman began to experiment with his wife’s waffle iron and crafted rubber trainers that could grip the track and remain lightweight.

The resulting Moon Shoes, as they came to be called, were first given to Olympic gold medallist Otis Davis, who had won the 400m in the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

Davis told The Hudson Reporter in 2012: “Bill Bowerman made the first pair of shoes for me. People don't believe me.

“In fact, I didn't like the way they felt on my feet. There was no support and they were too tight. But I saw Bowerman made them from the waffle iron, and they were mine.”

Bowerman then made the first proper batch of shoes for runners in the 1972 Olympic trials, making about 12 pairs. They are now among the most sought-after shoe collectors’ items, with Sotheby’s selling a pair for $437,500 in 2019.

Nike's Moon Shoe, the first trainer made by the company, was first given to runners in the 1972 Olympic trials. Photo: Sotheby's

Ever since, the Olympics have remained a key driver of Nike’s continued innovation and cultural influence.

In 1996, for example, runner Michael Johnson wore gold Nike track shoes which helped catapult him to global fame. They are perhaps the most famous footwear in Olympic history, with only Michael Jordan’s “Olympic” Nike Jordan VIIs, which he debuted at the 1992 games, to rival them.

“The idea was to make a shoe that was revolutionary, because I wanted something really lightweight and something with amazing support,” Johnson told Complex in 2016, explaining the origins of the shoe.

According to Johnson, the gold was only added to the shoe at the last minute, replacing the original design which was more metallic.

“The idea that it was going to be gold was not the original idea. It came about in the very last minute after designing that shoe for a year and a half.”