Source: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/adidas-founded-former-nazi/; The shoe and sportswear company was founded in 1949 by Adi Dassler, whose previous enterprise had manufactured military equipment for Nazi Germany. Nur Ibrahim Published October 27, 2022; The man who founded Adidas in 1949 had been a card-carrying member of the Nazi Party, but the extent of his involvement with the party and its tenets is debated. After rapper and fashion designer Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, caused an uproar by making anti-Semitic comments, a number of prominent companies rescinded their partnerships with him, including Adidas. The sportswear giant had been in a decade-long partnership with Ye, developing his Yeezy branded sneakers and other products that became best selling items.  On Oct. 25, 2022, Adidas announced that they were terminating their partnership with Ye. But the company has its own dark ties to anti-Semitism, in the form of its founder, Adolf "Adi" Dassler, who had been a member of the Nazi Party. Dassler, according to the Adidas website, registered a company in 1924 as "Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik" with the aim of creating the best sports equipment. After this, the website skips over a chunk of history, and goes to 1949. So what was Dassler up to before and during World War II? His first company was actually started in 1924 with his brother Rudolf. Although a German sprinter wearing the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory's shoes won the bronze medal at the Olympics in 1932, it was Black American sprinter Jesse Owens who won multiple gold medals wearing Dassler Brothers shoes in 1936, putting the company on the map.  The Dasslers both joined the Nazi party in 1933, according to the German magazine Der Spiegel. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Sports Studies, their initial company had "prospered in the Nazi years in the 1930s, as sport became a popular pursuit associated with the goals of the Hitler regime." Adi even joined the Hitler Youth in 1935 as a sports coach and supplier.  Like many small and medium-sized companies in war-era Germany, they participated in the Nazi war effort. Four years into World War II, the shoemakers in Herzogenaurach, the Dasslers' hometown, were suffering and ordered to cease all civilian operations in Dec. 1943. The German army was in retreat, and resources were scarce. The Dassler factory's shoe-making machines were converted into spot-welding equipment for weapons manufacturing. At this point, everyone in Herzogenaurach was working for the military.  The brothers reportedly disagreed on politics, however. According to the book "Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and the Family Feud That Forever Changed the Business of Sport" by Barbara Smit, Rudolf was more sympathetic to the Nazi cause, while Adolf preferred to focus on the business. Go to the snopes link in the description for further reading.