The creation of Adidas and Puma by brothers Adolf "Adi" Dassler and Rudolf "Rudi" Dassler, respectively, from the same small German town in the 1940s after a bitter brotherly feud is being adapted into a television series. The project is backed by Hollywood-based film producer No Fat Ego and has the blessing of the Adidas-founding family.

The series will delve into the fraternal conflict that led to the creation of two rival sports-shoe brands. Adi and Rudi jointly ran a family-owned footwear company before their fallout during World War II, an animosity that split their town of Herzogenaurach. Scriptwriter Mark Williams, known for the Netflix series "Ozark", is leading the project, utilizing Dassler family home videos and memorabilia.

Williams told AFP at the Cannes film festival, "Everybody knows the brands, but the story behind them is something we don't really fully know."

One sensitive aspect of the series will be the portrayal of the brothers during the war. Both were members of the Nazi party in the 1930s, which was common for the business elite. Rudi fought and was later arrested by Allied forces, while "Adi stayed home and tried to keep the company alive," Williams added. Their factory was seized and converted into a munitions plant.

The series promises to be a "Succession-type drama between the family" spanning several generations, according to Williams.

Niels Juul, head of No Fat Ego and producer of Martin Scorsese's recent films, was drawn to the story by the Dassler brothers' collaboration with Jesse Owens. Owens used their innovative spiked shoes to become a star at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which Hitler intended to showcase white German supremacy.

No Fat Ego intends to develop the series with full editorial independence before offering it to streaming platforms. Juul told AFP, "We want to have the creative control, and Mark has to have absolute silence and quiet to do what he does."