Sibling Rivalry Examined

Adidas / Adolf & Rudolf Dassler
Background: The Adidas Company started producing house slippers and then branched out into track shoes and soccer boots. It is named after its founder Adolf (Adi) DASsler who with his brother started the company in Herzogenaurach near Nuremberg in Bavaria.
Rivalry: After a violent falling out, Rudolf left the company and started the "Ruda" shoe company which he later renamed PUMA. When Adolf died in 1978, the two brothers had not spoken to each other in 29 years.

Gallo Wine / Ernerst, Julio & Joseph Gallo
Background: The three brothers inherited the family vineyard in 1933 when their father killed their mother and the committed suicide. 24-year-old Ernest and 23-year-old Julio used their inheritance to start the Gallo Winery. Their teenage brother Joseph worked for them and later bought a ranch and grew grapes and cattle. The grapes he sold to the Gallo Winery.
Rivalry: In 1983 when Joseph expanded his dairy operation to include cheese his brothers sued him in 1986 for infringing on their trademark. Joseph counter sued claiming that his 1/3 share of his father's inheritance entitled him to 1/3 of the winery. The trial got so nasty that Joseph was accused of running a rat-infested cheese plant and the other two brothers were accused of making cheap wine for drunks. Ernest and Julio won both suits.

Revlon / Charles, Joseph & Martin Revson
Background: Charles Revson and his brother Joseph, along with a chemist, Charles Lachman, who contributed the "L" in the REVLON name, founded Revlon in the midst of the Great Depression. Martin joined the company later.
Rivalry: Joseph quit the company in 1955 be cause he did not agree with his brother that the company should go public. He sold all of his shares for $2.5 million. If he had waited four years he could have sold the same stock for $35 million. Martin left and sued to company charging that his brother mistreated executives and abused them personally. The bothers did not speak for 13 years.

Kellogg's / John & William Kellogg
Background: Kellogg's was founded in 1906 by Will Keith Kellogg and his brother John Harvey Kellogg started Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in 1906. The company produced and marketed the hugely successful Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes and was renamed the Kellogg Company in 1922.
Rivalry: John was a world-famous doctor and insisted that Kellogg's cereals be "health foods." He did not want to use any white sugar but his bother just wanted something that would sell. So Will waiting until John was out of the country and added sugar into the flakes. The partnership fell apart and both brothers spent the next decade suing each other. Which in the end stated that Will's company was the only one allowed to use the name Kellogg's. When John died in 1942 the two had not spoken in 33 years.


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