Horst Dassler (12 March 1936 – 10 April 1987) was a German businessman. The son of Adolf "Adi" Dassler, founder of
Adidas
Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...
. Horst Dassler founded
Arena
An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...
, a swimwear company, and became chairman of Adidas, and at the time of his death it was the world's largest sporting goods manufacturer with affiliates in 40 nations. Horst himself was known as the father of sports sponsorship as a result of his separate business of managing rights for the world governing bodies of football and the Olympics.
Horst was also the nephew of Rudolf Dassler, founder of Puma.
Career at Adidas
Dassler joined his father's firm in 1960 and founded an Adidas affiliate in
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...
that later became the dominant sporting goods manufacturer in France. Among Dassler's achievements was the founding of the
Arena
An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...
line of
swimwear
A swimsuit is an item of clothing designed to be worn by people engaging in a water-based activity or water sports, such as swimming, diving and surfing, or sun-orientated activities, such as sun bathing. Different types and styles may be worn ...
in 1973. Dassler had been impressed by the performance of
Mark Spitz
Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He was the Lists of Olympic medalists#Medalist with most medals by Olympiad, most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympi ...
at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Having developed an ultra-light fabric, Dassler persuaded Australian swimmer Shane Gould to enter a sponsorship agreement to promote the Shane Gould Female Swimsuit Collection. Dassler continued to sign athletes to sponsorship deals and by the 1976 Montreal Olympics the "Arena Elite Team" included Mark Spitz, Novella Calligaris,
Klaus Dibiasi
Klaus Dibiasi (born 6 October 1947) is a former sports diver from Italy, who competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics for his country, starting in 1964. He dominated the platform event from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, winning three Oly ...
,
Ulrika Knape
Ulrika Margareta Knape-Lindberg (née ''Knape'' on 26 April 1955) is a retired Swedish diver. She competed in the 10 m platform and 3 m springboard at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and won one gold and two silver medals. In 1972–1974 she was na ...
and Maxine “Miki” King. Beyond signing individual athletes, Dassler led Adidas's pioneering drive to sign national sports federations and Olympic committees to exclusive shoe and apparel contracts. Although Adidas lost a considerable share of this business after Dassler's death, even five years later Adidas had ties with about 100 companies.
After the death of his father in 1978, Dassler's mother Käthe Dassler became chairman of the company and Dassler returned to Germany to take his place in the top management of the firm. When his mother died in 1984, Dassler assumed the office of chairman, a position he retained until his death.
On assuming control, Dassler was immediately faced with the challenge of increasing competition for sports shoeware:
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. (stylized as ''NIKE'') is an American athletic footwear and apparel corporation headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon. It is the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, ...
was eroding Adidas's market share in the United States and Japan, and
Puma SE
Puma SE is a German multinational corporation which designs and manufactures athletic and casual footwear, apparel, and accessories, headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. Puma is the third largest sportswear manufacturer in the w ...
, a company founded by Dassler's uncle after a dispute with his father, had increased its sales of athletic footwear by 35% the previous year. Dassler responded to the challenge by installing a professional management team at company headquarters to replace family members. In the United States, where Adidas's sales had slipped to one third of Nike's, Dassler attempted to diversify distribution channels and respond to a shift in consumer demand from athletic to casual footwear, a shift that Adidas had failed to satisfy.
Career as sports marketer
Horst Dassler was known as the father of sport sponsorship. In the mid-1970s, Dassler formed arguably the first sports marketing firm with British advertising executive Patrick J. Nally. The two approached newly elected
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...
President
João Havelange
Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid "João" de Havelange (, ; 8 May 1916 – 16 August 2016) was a Brazilian lawyer, businessman, and athlete who was the seventh president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. His tenure as president is the second longest in ...
, who believed that the soccer body was not maximizing revenues. Dassler proposed obtaining corporate sponsorships for the World Cup and other activities of FIFA. It took the two 18 months of high-pressure salesmanship to persuade Coca-Cola to become FIFA's first corporate sponsor, committing $8 million. Coca-Cola thus became the first exclusive worldwide sponsor of a sport. Dassler and Nally continued acquiring sponsorships from blue-chip companies like McDonald's and Levi Strauss. Dassler's business practices had few limits and David Yallop in his book ''How they Stole the Game'' says his relationship with Havelange was "Drahtzieher." Dassler was the "puppetmaster." In the 1982, Dassler broke with Nally and established ISL Marketing A.G. (ISL), a firm which continued marketing FIFA rights but also added television rights to the advertising package which it bought up en masse from FIFA.
In May 1985, ISL was selected to manage the corporate sponsorship program of the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...
(IOC). The highly lucrative contract was awarded without competitive bidding, and even without providing the opportunity to Nally's rival marketing company, West Nally, Ltd., to make an alternative proposal. Many suspected that personal relations between Adidas and the IOC were behind the private arrangement. IOC President
Juan Antonio Samaranch
Juan Antonio Samaranch y Torelló, 1st Marquess of Samaranch ( Catalan: ''Joan Antoni Samaranch i Torelló'', ; 17 July 1920 – 21 April 2010) was a Spanish sports administrator under the Franco regime (1973–1977) who served as the seventh ...
denied any impropriety, and Dassler, claiming to be motivated solely by good will for the Olympics movement, denied he had a conflict of interest. According to British sports journalists Vyv Simson and
Andrew Jennings
Andrew Jennings (3 September 1943 – 8 January 2022) was a British investigative reporter. He was best known for his work investigating and writing about corruption in the IOC and FIFA.
Early life
Jennings was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, ...
, Dassler and ISL were largely responsible for turning the Olympics into a hugely successful revenue-generating enterprise. Dassler used his contacts to obtain Olympic sponsorship by Coca-Cola and other important companies, and obtained Olympic financing from Monte Carlo banks. Years later, Samaranch was the main eulogist at Dassler's funeral.
Years after Dassler's death, in May 2001 ISL filed for bankruptcy, with a stated net debt of $300 million.
Death
Horst Dassler died on 10 April 1987 from complications due to cancer. He left behind his wife Monika and two children, Suzanne and Adi.