One family, one town, two companies
Adolf ("Adi") and Rudolf Dassler registered the "Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik" (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) in Herzogenaurach in 1924, after starting out making shoes in their mother's laundry room. The brand built its early reputation through Olympic athletes: German competitors wore Dassler shoes at the 1928 Amsterdam Games, and Jesse Owens won four gold medals in them at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The brothers fell out in 1948. Rudolf Dassler moved to a separate family-owned building in the same town, founded his own company with 14 employees, and registered the PUMA brand name with the German Patent and Trademark Office on 1 October 1948. Adolf Dassler stayed at the original site and, on 18 August 1949, registered "Adolf Dassler adidas Sportschuhfabrik," building in the now-famous three stripes on a shoe registered that same year. Both companies kept their headquarters in Herzogenaurach rather than relocating, which is why the town of roughly 24,000 people hosts two publicly traded global sportswear companies to this day.
What each company is today
adidas expanded its headquarters campus in Herzogenaurach, called "World of Sports," completing a new office building in 2019 that brought all its Herzo-based employees onto one site. The company markets itself globally across football, running, lifestyle and collaborations, and in 2024 marked both its 75th anniversary as adidas and 100 years since the original Dassler brothers' factory was registered.
PUMA has followed its own path from the same starting point: after early success in football and track and field, it went public as PUMA AG in 1986, moving through periods of restructuring, most notably under CEO Jochen Zeitz from 1993, who turned it from a low-price brand into a premium sport-lifestyle company. PUMA remains headquartered in Herzogenaurach as PUMA SE.
Neither company still centres its actual manufacturing in the town. Both source production from factories across Asia and elsewhere, so a Herzogenaurach visit is a corporate and retail experience, not a production one.
What you can actually see and do there
Herzogenaurach is known among sportswear shoppers for its outlet stores, where both companies sell past-season and discounted stock, alongside the corporate campuses themselves (viewable from outside; these are working office sites, not visitor attractions). If an outlet visit is the goal, confirm current opening hours, stock, and exact addresses directly through adidas and PUMA's own store locators before travelling, since outlet locations and hours can change and VoyageWindow was unable to confirm a specific current address for either company's outlet on the day this was written.
Is it actually cheaper to buy here?
This is the question that brings most visitors to a "should I shop here" decision, and there is no single honest answer. Outlet pricing reflects discontinued or off-season stock, which can undercut full retail price at home regardless of country, but the same discount percentage does not guarantee the item is cheaper than what is available through a sale in your home market. The one factor genuinely specific to shopping in Germany as a visitor is the VAT refund available to residents of non-EU countries.
How the VAT refund actually works for a non-EU visitor
Germany applies VAT (Mehrwertsteuer) to retail purchases, and non-EU residents can reclaim it on goods they take home unused, provided the purchase meets the retailer's and refund provider's minimum spend and the goods leave the EU within the required timeframe, typically by the end of the third month after purchase. In practice this means: ask the retailer for a tax-free form at the point of sale, keep your receipt and the goods accessible (not packed in checked luggage) for customs inspection, and get the form stamped by customs at your final point of departure from the EU before you fly home. Refund processing fees vary by provider, so the amount you actually receive back is less than the full VAT rate.
Before you plan a special trip
If adidas or PUMA outlet shopping is your main reason to detour to Herzogenaurach, weigh the travel time against the size of the saving you actually expect, factoring in your VAT refund and the specific item's price at home, rather than assuming any purchase made in the brands' hometown is automatically a bargain.