SNEAKER WARS

In her impressive debut, business journalist Smit tears the laces off two beloved conglomerates.

The majority of casual jocks may wear Nike and Converse, but for the hipster athlete (or non-athlete) willing to pay a few extra bucks for sneakers with flash as well as functionality, Adidas and Puma are it. The respective history of these two European shoe corporations is shadowy at best, and certainly intriguing enough to merit a full-length study. Smit brings the reader into the innovative minds and often black hearts of old-school sneaker magnates—and Nazi party members—Rudolf (Rudi) and Adolf (Adi) Dassler. The brothers began churning out shoes in the early 1920s, then split the company some two decades later, Rudi starting Puma and Adi launching Adidas. In addition to relating their up-and-down relationship, Smit also examines the effect of athlete endorsements on both society and business, discussing the involvement of everybody from 1936 Olympics sprinter Jesse Owens to 1972 swimming medalist Mark Spitz to soccer player David Beckham in 2007. She also cleverly touches on the shoes’ place in the entertainment industry; for example, there’s a small but sharp passage about the classic Run-D.M.C. rap jam “My Adidas.”

Smit’s flat, textbook-like prose hardly matches her subject’s vibrancy, but that’s a relatively minor flaw in a fast-moving tale about the machinations behind contemporary pop culture’s most enduring footwear.