Adolf and Rudolf Dassler founded a shoe business in July 1924 in Herzogenaurach, Germany, working from their mother's laundry. Their father had been a shoe factory worker, and the brothers were among the first to make sports shoes. In 1936 they took a suitcase of spiked shoes to the Berlin Olympics and persuaded American sprinter Jesse Owens to wear them, the first sponsorship of an African American athlete, and Owens won four gold medals. The business boomed, and by the late 1930s they were selling around 200,000 pairs a year. The brothers later split, with the business divided into two rival companies, Puma under Rudolf and Adidas under Adi, and the rivalry between them shaped the town and the sportswear industry for decades.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.