Re: endorsements, you know one of the Germans who got famous for being welcoming and accepting of Owens unlike the Nazis? Adolf Dassler
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Replying to @arthur_affect
(He technically was, in fact, a Nazi, but whaddyagonnado right)
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Adolf "Adi" Dassler was a businessman in the new and growing market for special shoes scientifically designed for athletes
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Replying to @arthur_affect
He convinced Jesse Owens to wear his specially designed track shoes in the 1936 Olympics and got huge PR for his four gold medals
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Replying to @arthur_affect
This may be the first historically significant athletic shoe endorsement, certainly the first by a Black athlete
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Replying to @arthur_affect
And it pretty directly led to the creation of the international company we now call "Adidas"
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Adolf Dassler, former Nazi, died incredibly wealthy bc of this. Jesse Owens, thanks to Olympic rules on "amateurism", got jack shit
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Replying to @arthur_affect
This probably contributed toward Owens' attitude about "amateur" competition, endorsements, etc
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Replying to @arthur_affect
(Irony alert: the shoes you wear when you train matter a lot more than the shoes you wear on the day you perform)
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Replying to @arthur_affect
(And Owens, in his high school days, couldn't afford to replace shoes regularly so was known to train running barefoot)
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(You could make this into a whole barefoot running thing but I don't know or care about all that so whatever)
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Replying to @arthur_affect
And another ironic twist: The only white man who publicly displayed respect & admiration for Owens during his athletic career was... /1
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Replying to @michael_kubik @arthur_affect
...fellow sprinter for Nazi Germany, Lutz Long, who openly embraced him after Owens beat him in Berlin. An act for which he paid his life.
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