Pitch Invasion
Adidas, Puma and the Making of Modern Sport
Unlacing the story of how sport became so full of money
Today, sport is big business, and Adidas and Puma are two of the biggest global brands, paying stars, clubs and competitions to wear their label, dominating everywhere from football pitches to magazine pages. This is the incredible story of how the rivalry between two brothers turned sport into an industry.
Pitch Invasion also tells the tales of some of the greatest sportsmen of all time, revealing the Pele pact, Boris Becker’s unfortunate contribution to the demise of Puma, and just how Adidas helped Mohammed Ali win his biggest fight.
Reaching right up to today’s world of multibillion-dollar corporations, looking at how the arrival of Nike affected the pitch and the significance of Adidas’s recent takeover of Reebok, this is an incredible sporting drama of competition, greed, bribery, passion and shoes.
This book covers the birth of adidas and Puma, their growing pains, a family feud, the arrival of Nike, the decline of the German brands and their 90's re-emergence. Interesting revelations about business growth that can be used by any budding entropeneur.
A book is written in such an appealing way that it appeals to the sports enthusiast or businessman, alike. Once started impossible to put down.
The Author:
Barbara Smit
Barbara Smit is a journalist and has reported on the affairs of big businesses for the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune and others. Over the past four years she has travelled all around Europe and the United States to investigate the true story of Adidas, interviewing those involved with the company, declassifying documents and unearthing exclusive stories. Pitch Invasion has been translated into three languages.