About the work
“Die Erfindung der Schuhe” (“The Invention of Shoes”) is a sports comedy by the German playwright Philipp Löhle, written as a commission for the Staatstheater Nürnberg, where he has been house playwright since the 2018/19 season. The world premiere is scheduled for 22 October 2026 at the Schauspielhaus in Nuremberg, directed by the author himself.
Plot
At its centre are the brothers Adolf “Adi” and Rudolf “Rudi” Dassler from Herzogenaurach in Franconia, who first made sports shoes together and, after their split, feuded for life as founders of the rival brands Adidas and Puma. Löhle transplants the quarrelling brothers, together with their wives and children, into ancient Greece, where the characters bear Hellenised names such as Adilius, Rudolfus or Käthemis. Ranging from Jesse Owens and the “Miracle of Bern” to Run-DMC and Kanye West, the comedy looks for the comic and the supposedly heroic in German history, capitalism and brand staging.
Cultural significance
The material is based on a real family feud: after their break in 1948 Rudolf Dassler founded Puma and Adolf founded Adidas in 1949, and the rivalry divided their home town for decades; in 1954 Adidas equipped the West German team that won the World Cup. As the premiere is still to come, no reviews are available yet.