A PAIR of designer trainers has sparked controversy after being declared a dead-ringer of Hitler.
To some the toe and tongue of the Puma “Storm Adrenaline” has drawn comparison to the dictator’s signature side parting and toothbrush moustache.
The comparisons originated in Russia and are now going global.
Some felt that the shoe’s name Storm Adrenaline also evoked that of the Nazi’s paramilitary wing, the Sturmabteilung, whose name translates as Storm Detachment.
Others noted that the company’s founders, Rudolf Dassler, was a member of the Nazi Party during the World War Two.
One wearer said the comparison came as a surprise.
He said: “I never noticed. I used the shoe twice and never realised it until now.
“I have gotten rid of it. I’ve already sold it.”
Another awarded the likeness an “8/10 on the Hitler scale”.
But others disagreed with the comparison.
One said: “Adolf Hitler shoes? I did not see it directly. I think it’s a bit far-fetched.
“Good I have Adidas, not Puma.”
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When Rudolf Dassler was picked up by US soldiers after the war, he was accused of being an SS member and believed that his brother, Adolf – who would later found Adidas – had turned him in.
But despite their party membership, the brothers provided shoes to black US athlete Jesse Owens, who humiliated Hitler by winning four gold medals at the 1936 “Nazi” Olympics.
Puma has been contacted for comment.
This is not the first Hitler optical illusion to come to light.
Back in 2011 a house in Swansea, Wales, 2011, was called out as a Hitler look-a-like.
The slanting roof is said to resemble the Fuhrer’s slicked down hairdo while the front door is his moustache.
And time and time again, cats have been said to bare an uncanny likeness of the evil dictator.
