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PUMA is one of the world's leading Sports Brands, designing, developing, selling and marketing footwear, apparel and accessories. For over 65 years, PUMA has established a history of making fast product designs for the fastest athletes on the planet. PUMA offers performance and sport-inspired lifestyle products in categories such as Football, Running, Training and Fitness, Golf, and Motorsports. It engages in exciting collaborations with renowned design brands such as Alexander McQueen and Mihara Yasuhiro to bring innovative and fast designs to the sports world. The PUMA Group owns the brands PUMA, Cobra Golf, Tretorn, Dobotex and Brandon. The company distributes its products in more than 120 countries, employs more than 10,000 people worldwide, and is headquartered in Herzogenaurach/Germany.
Registered Office:
Herzogenaurach, Germany
Official Company Language:
The PUMA share is listed for official trading on the Frankfurt and Munich stock exchanges. It is trading in the Prime Standard Segment and the Index SDAX of the German Stock Exchange (Deutsche Börse).
Shareholders (as of October 2013):
84,00 % Kering Group (Main Shareholder) 16,00 % of the PUMA shares in free float
Administrative Board:
The Administrative Board consists of nine members, six of whom represent the interests of the shareholders while the remaining three represent the employees from Europe.
Jean-François Palus (Chairman)
Group Managing Director of Kering, Paris, France
François-Henri Pinault (Deputy Chairman)
CEO and Chairman of the board of directors of Kering, Paris, France
Thore Ohlsson
President of Elimexo AB, Falsterbo, Sweden
Todd Hymel
Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Sport & Lifestyle division of Kering, Paris, France
Jean-Marc Duplaix
Chief Financial Officer of Kering, Paris, France
Michel Friocourt
Legal Director of Kering, Paris, France
Bernd Illig (Employee Representative)
Specialist IT User & System Support of PUMA SE, Herzogenaurach, Germany
Martin Köppel (Employee Representative)
Administrator IT Microsoft Systems of PUMA SE, Herzogenaurach, Germany
Guy Buzzard (Employee Representative)
Key Account Manager (Sales) of PUMA United Kingdom Ltd., Manchester, England
Managing Directors:
Björn Gulden (Chief Executive Officer)
Michael Lämmermann (Chief Financial Officer)
Stefano Caroti (Chief Commercial Officer)
Andy Koehler (Chief Operating Officer)
Consolidated Sales:
PUMA's consolidated sales for the financial year 2013 were € 2,985.3 million.
Sales by Segments:
The sales breakdown for the financial year 2013 by segment was as follows:
|Consolidated Sales
|in % of Consolidated Sales
|€ 1,372.1 million
|46.0 %
|€ 1,063.8 million
|35.6 %
|€ 549.4 million
|18.4 %
|€ 2,985.3 million
|100 %
Financial Reporting:
PUMA abides by the International Financial Reporting Standards "IFRS", and reports its earnings on a quarterly basis.
We have made it our mission to become the most desirable and most sustainable Sportlifestyle company in the world.
We are pursuing this goal with our unique "Joy" market positioning. As a brand for the young and young-at-heart, PUMA is innovative, dynamic, daring, rebellious, future- oriented and equally inspires the worlds of sport and lifestyle. The Group is continuing to pursue the long-term "Back on the Attack" growth plan, but is directly focusing on the following three priorities:
• Implementing a comprehensive cost reduction program to ensure profitability over the short-term.
• Consistently developing innovative product and marketing campaigns to hone the brand profile and to continually increase product and brand desirability.
• Focused ongoing development of the corporate transformation to optimize the business model as a robust basis for long-term, profitable growth.
The Football Euro Cup in June, the conclusion of PUMA's second Volvo Ocean Race in July and the Summer Olympics in August turned 2012 into an exceptional year for PUMA. These major sports events were the perfect opportunity for us to further boost our global brand desirability and sharpen our positioning as a credible Sport Performance brand. With our 2012 marketing and product initiatives we have made further strides towards achieving our goal of becoming the most desirable and sustainable Sportlifestyle company in the world.
Differentiating PUMA's positioning in the Performance and Lifestyle arenas as well as investments into innovation, research and development remain key to increase PUMA's brand heat and accelerate product desirability. In 2012, we have initiated a significant overhaul to our Brand Management structure and established a new strategy to bring simplicity, clarity and a refreshed, youthful outlook to the brand. We have established clearer, consumer focused value propositions for each of our product and marketing categories in order to build a stronger tie to our product portfolio. We also began to address the challenge of becoming a more relevant brand for younger consumers by using youthful Performance and Lifestyle icons such as Rickie Fowler for golf, Sergio Agüero for football and Professor Green for PUMA Social. By stepping into action sports such as Global RallyCross, we address the young and action sport inspired consumers and bring PUMA's energy and spirit to life with our GRC collection.
At PUMA we feel we are responsible for the environmental impact of our products and have implemented numerous initiatives to reduce our environmental footprint. As part of our sustainability strategy, we showed a sneak peek into our first collection of biodegradable and recyclable products in October as the first step to help reduce the amounts of garbage that consumer products cause once they are disposed of. This innovative product line results directly from significant insights that we gained through extending PUMA's groundbreaking Environmental Profit and Loss (E P&L) Account from 2010 to the product level, identifying and comparing environmental impacts of more sustainable and conventional products across production and consumer life phases in Euros and Cents. Once again, we are taking the initiative towards a more sustainable business model and are confident that with the support by our consumers and retailers globally we can make a difference.
While we stay true to our Sportlifestyle positioning as a brand, we want to strengthen each of our segments through more distinct approaches in terms of product, marketing and distribution. At the beginning of 2013 we introduced a new Business Unit structure in order to press ahead with our sharpened focus on Performance and Lifestyle. Product management, design, development and product-specific marketing have all been bundled under six newly established Business Units: Teamsport, Running, Training & Fitness, Golf, Fundamentals, Lifestyle and Motorsport as well as Accessories & Licensing. Compared to our previous divisional setup based on footwear, apparel and accessories each Business Unit now combines the full expertise and product development within one pillar and in one central location and is headed by an experienced Business Unit Manager. This allows us to become more specialized and ultimately more competitive in our Performance as well as Lifestyle categories. Furthermore, our continued focus on the development of stronger global and regional core collections will enable us to drive a more consistent brand representation globally as well as regionally.
We are excited about the challenges ahead of us and confident that we can achieve our ambitious goals with a new philosophy of collaborative idea generation resulting in fresh and innovative approaches to the market to connect with our consumers.
Founded in Herzogenaurach, Germany in 1948, PUMA is one of the world's largest providers of Sportlifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories. The PUMA Group owns the brands PUMA, Cobra Golf and Tretorn. The company distributes its products in more than 120 countries and employs about 11,000 people worldwide. It is committed to working in ways that contribute to the world by supporting Creativity, SAFE Sustainability and Peace, and by staying true to the principles of being Fair, Honest, Positive and Creative in decisions made and actions taken.
Over the years, PUMA has stayed true to its four cornerstones: heritage, sport, technological innovation and design. The brand is focusing on bringing distinctive designs and a global outlook to each product range by blending influences of sport, lifestyle and fashion. This fusion is known as "Sportlifestyle". PUMA views sport as a philosophy on life – one that emphasizes fitness, wellness and simply living an active life. Since Sport can be different things to different people, PUMA approaches it in a greater-lifestyle context, while not compromising performance. This is exactly what the brand means when it speaks of "Sportlifestyle".
In 1993, at the age of thirty, Jochen Zeitz is appointed CEO. Zeitz spearheads and is responsible for the worldwide restructuring of PUMA, which was in financial difficulties at the time. He reaches the first major milestone within his first year as CEO, when PUMA deliveres its first profitable performance since 1986, posting consolidated sales of 210 million Euros with an EBIT of 23 million Euros in 1994. In 2010, PUMA reaches net earnings of 202 million Euros and consolidated sales of more than 2.7 billion Euros. The share price rises from 8.6 Euros in 1993 to an all time high of 350 Euros in April 2007. Zeitz manages to turn PUMA from a low price brand into a premium Sportlifestyle company and one of the top 3 brands in the sporting good industry by sticking to a long-term development plan that he introduced in 1993.
In 2007, French luxury group PPR (now Kering), one of the world's top fashion and retail companies, acquires more than 60 percent of PUMA. With the support of Kering, PUMA strengthens its position as the leading company in the Sportlifestyle market with a continued focus on long-term sustainable growth. With the transformation of the company into a European Corporation (SE) in July 2011 Franz Koch succeeds Jochen Zeitz as CEO after 18 years in this position. Zeitz ensures a continuous strategic management of the company's next phase of its corporate development as the Executive Chairman of the one-tier PUMA SE Board until the end of November 2012.
As of December 2012, Jean-François Palus, Group Managing Director of PPR, takes over as Chairman of the Administrative Board of PUMA SE. And on April 18th, 2013, the Administrative Board of PUMA SE appoints Björn Gulden (47) as the Sportlifestyle company's new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective 1 July 2013. Björn Gulden brings to PUMA an extensive international experience of nearly 20 years in the sporting goods and footwear industry, where he held a variety of management positions. His main task is to lead PUMA through its continuing restructuring and transformation program.
With the objective of being "The Most Desirable and Sustainable Sportlifestyle Company", PUMA's position as one of the few, true multi-category brands is to be strengthened and the opportunities offered by the Sportlifestyle market are to be systematically exploited in all categories and regions. As a multi-category supplier, PUMA is active in categories and business fields/divisions that suit its unique brand positioning, and in which permanent value increases can be achieved for the company.
PUMAVision forms the guiding principle for PUMA and our global partnerships and commitments. It combines the concepts and initiatives of PUMA with respect to "entrepreneurial sustainability" and "social responsibility". The four principles of PUMAVision, fair, honest, positive and creative constitute the compass of our company, employees, partners and target groups with respect to all our decisions. PUMAVision reflects our vision of a better world – a world that is more peaceful, safer, and more creative than the world that we know today.
Cobra Golf is one of the world's most renowned golf club manufacturers. Tom Crow established the company in 1973 in southern California. The club designer and former Australian amateur golf champion soon developed golf's first utility wood – coining it "Baffler" –- which set the innovation benchmark for future Cobra product development. What made Baffler so effective, particularly from deep rough, fluffy lies and hard pan, was its patented sole-plate design.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Cobra was the first U.S. equipment manufacturer in several categories. For instance, it was the first to offer stock graphite-shafted woods and irons. The company also introduced the autoclave system, which significantly strengthened graphite shafts via a proprietary compression-curing process. An Australian and former No.1 golfer in the world during the 80s and 90s, purchased an equity share of the company in 1991 and helped Crow design Cobra's first line of forged irons. The next year, Cobra introduced the first full set of oversized irons, which quickly became an entirely new club category in the golf market. Cobra also solidified its presence in the seniors and women's club categories during this time.
The company was thriving and in 1996, American Brands, Inc. – parent of golf conglomerate Acushnet Company – purchased Cobra and then grouped the brand with its other golf entities Titleist, FootJoy and Pinnacle. That infusion helped Cobra continue as a powerful force in the golf industry. Keeping its mission of offering golfers a competitive performance advantage and functionality through innovative design, Cobra has seen great success with many products ever since, including several iterations of Baffler. The company also developed several key innovations – such as 9 Point Face Technology, Adjustable Flight Technology, Multi-Material Technology and Baffler Rail Technology -- that can be found in products throughout Cobra's product line.
Over the years, the company has had a noticeable Tour presence, being officially represented and endorsed in the 1990s by many professional golf stars. Cobra clubs were also played by several top PGA Tour money winners who were not compensated to play the equipment but realized they needed it to win. More recently, stars such as Ian Poulter, Camilo Villegas and J.B. Holmes have all captured PGA Tour victories while endorsing the company and its products.
In 2010, PUMA AG purchased Cobra, and created a new company, COBRA-PUMA GOLF. The merger leveraged PUMA Golf's footwear, apparel and accessories designs with Cobra Golf's high performance golf clubs. Being a leading golf equipment manufacturer, Cobra is fully committed to providing superior-quality, high performance products for avid golfers of all abilities. COBRA-PUMA GOLF is a corporate division of PUMA North America.
PUMA has first carbon neutrally-operated company headquarters in the sportlifestyle and sporting goods industry
Just two years after laying the foundations for the new building, PUMA opened its new company headquarters in Herzogenaurach, the "PUMAVision Headquarters" in the autumn of 2009. It is the first carbon neutrally-operated company headquarters in its industry sector. The headquarters at PUMA's German base near Nuremberg is called "PUMAVision Headquarters" as the construction of the complex, which covers a total area of 50,000 square meters, was strictly guided by PUMA's sustainability concept, PUMAVision.
Through the implementation of numerous innovative energy-saving concepts throughout the office building, the Brand Center and the world's largest PUMA factory outlet store, PUMA has chosen a new path toward environmental protection. Photovoltaic generating stations were installed over an area of 1,000 square meters on the roof of the outlet center as well as on the roof of the car park building on a total area of 1,500 square meters. An additional 140 square meters of solar modules were integrated into the window front on the south side of the retail building. In total these provide enough energy to match the average consumption of about 40 households.
In October 2012, PUMA inaugurated a new solar charging station at the PUMAVision Headquarters. PUMA staff and PUMA customers may use the sustainable 'refueling station' free of charge. The solar-powered charging station is built on an area of about 100 square meters and offers eight plug-in positions for electric cars, scooters, bikes as well as pedelecs. 24 solar modules with a total power of 5.64 kWp have been installed on the roof of the solar charging station, generating a total power of 164 kWp along with the already existing photovoltaic elements on the roof of the PUMA Stores and the multi story car park. The total energy generated by PUMA's photovoltaic at the PUMAVision Headquarters adds up to 180.000 kWh per year, which equals the average annual consumption of about 50 households.
Water is heated partly through solar energy. Motion sensors which turn lights off automatically when employees leave their workplace also ensure energy conservation. Furthermore, the buildings are heated and cooled sustainably through concrete core temperature control, a method which is up to the highest ecological standards. To save on water the toilets in the restrooms are flushed with rainwater collected in a cistern. Through these energy-saving concepts PUMA is making a significant contribution to climate protection and significantly saves electricity, CO2 and water, and therefore also money.
Electricity for the PUMA building in Herzogenaurach is generated from renewable energy sources only, meaning the company has been able to considerably cut down its carbon footprint. In order to offset the remaining CO2 emissions, PUMA actively supports compensation projects. Through this, PUMA has reached an ambitious goal – PUMAVision Headquarters is the first carbon neutral company headquarters in the sportlifestyle and sporting goods industry. In 2010, PUMA started offsetting all direct CO2 emissions as well as indirect CO2 emissions from its own entities and continued doing so in 2012, supported by our French majority shareholder Kering.
Another prime concern besides environmental protection was the creation of attractive working conditions for the 650 employees. The PUMAVision Headquarters is designed in a modern and stylish ambiance, perfectly representing PUMA's philosophy. The building's 107 ample single and open plan offices are flooded with light via the floor-to-ceiling windows, fusing functional design and the highest possible flexibility. Using mobile interior elements, spaces can easily be modified according to the needs of specific projects and workshops, thus conforming to PUMA's flat and decentralised corporate structure.
The Brand Center covers a total area of 10,000 square meters and houses five showrooms displaying PUMA's innovative sportlifestyle collections, as well as a multimedia hall, which holds up to 1,500 people during presentations and events, and which can also be hired out externally. The architectural plans for PUMAVision Headquarters were inspired by the strength, energy and ease symbolised by PUMA's unique logo of a jumping wild cat, and this is also represented in the building's aesthetics. The PUMA Factory Outlet Store, which reminds of a red PUMA shoe box, offers PUMA collections on an area covering 2,600 square meters.
1924 to 1948: The road that led to the PUMA shoe factory owned by Rudolf Dassler
1924- Brothers Rudolf and Adolf Dassler found the company "Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik" [Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory] in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
1936- Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the Olympic Games wearing the Dassler shoes. Overall, numerous world class athletes sporting Dassler shoes win seven gold and five bronze medals as well as breaking two world and five Olympic records.
1948- Rudolf Dassler founds PUMA Schuhfabrik Rudolf Dassler [Rudolf Dassler shoe factory]. It is officially registered on October 1, 1948. The same year, PUMA's first football boot, the "ATOM", is launched on the market.
The 1950s: Sports Achievements
Shortly after the company is founded, Rudolf Dassler successfully develops a football boot with screw-in studs, in collaboration with experts, such as Sepp Herberger. The launch of the "SUPER ATOM," the world's first screw-in boot, which Dassler launches in 1952, marks the beginning of a long-term and highly successful relationship between PUMA and football. In May 1954, the German premier league team Hannover 96 wins the league and are crowned champions in the final game against FC Kaiserslautern. The majority of the players is wearing the enhanced version of the boot, called "BRASIL." PUMA is also successful in track and field: 1954 - Heinz Fütterer breaks the world record in the 100 meters in Japan, wearing PUMA running shoes. 1958 - PUMA introduces its trademark logo, the unmistakable PUMA form strip. In the same year, at the Football World Cup in Sweden, the PUMA boot is worn by players on both teams and is the only German-made football boot in the final.
The 1960s: Revolutionary Technologies
1960 – PUMA partner Armin Hary continues the company's success story in track and field and wins gold in the 100 meters at the Olympic Games in Rome. 1968 - The "MEXICO 1968" running shoe amazes with its innovative brush soles – 68 small, only 4 mm long bristles in the front area of the foot: Numerous American athletes,who wear the shoe, set new world records just a few weeks prior to the games in Mexico. However, according to the association, the shoe is "too dangerous" and consequently banned. The athletes are deprived of the world records. Nonetheless, PUMA athlete Tommie Smith wins gold in the 200 meters and causes a stir: He and his team colleague John Carlos (bronze) raise their fists in the Black Power salute, protesting against discrimination ofAfrican Americans and other minorities in the USA, Apartheid and racism. In the meantime, PUMA makes more history in football. The world class football players Eusébio and Pélé are equipped with PUMA boots and PUMA develops the legendary "PUMA KING" football boot.
The 1970's: Passion for sports
During the World Cup in Mexico in 1970, the "Player of the Tournament," Pélé leads Brazil to win the title wearing "PUMA KING." Four years later, Johan Cruyff shows his loyalty towards his sponsor by tearing off the third stripe of his shirt, is named the "Player of the Tournament" and "European Player of the Year" for the second time in a row. Even in tennis PUMA has established a reputation: 1977 - The Argentinean Guillermo Vilas wins the French, US and Australian Open.
The 1980's: Dynamics and Top Performances
The 80's are dominated by the tennis boom, triggered by Boris Becker and his spectacular victory in Wimbledon in 1985. As the youngest, first unseeded and German player, he wins the tournament, wearing PUMA shoes and sporting a PUMA racket. From 1984 to 1987, PUMA also has Martina Navratilova under contract, one of the most successful players in tennis history. In the world of football, one player was making the headlines: Diego Armando Maradona sports PUMA boots during his first World Cup appearance in 1982 and went down in history with the "Hand of God" goal at the World Cup 1986.
The 1990's: Pastures New
In 1990, PUMA KING player Lothar Matthäus is crowned World Cup Champion with the German National Team in Italy. The team captain is also named "European Player of the Year," "World Cup Footballer," "World Athlete" and "ARD Top Goal Scorer of the Year." In 1993, top athletes Heike Drechsler, Merlene Ottey, Linford Christie and Colin Jackson win gold medals in track and field at the World Championship in Stuttgart. At the Olympic Games 1996 PUMA causes a stir with a creative contact lens campaign. PUMA is the first sports brand to combine sports with fashion as it enters into a collaborative agreement with fashion designer Jil Sander in 1998.
2000 to 2011: Moving forward with Sportlifestlye
In the 21st century, PUMA has constantly set new trends and expanded its brand in the most spectacular ways: As a professional equipment supplier in motorsports (Ferrari, Renault), through cooperation agreements in design and fashion (e.g. Yasuhiro Mihara), with sensational football shirts for the Cameroon national football team (sleeveless and one piece), as the supplier of the Jamaican track and field team, as the sponsor of the 2006 World Cup Champions (Italy) and as a supplier of golf fashion. In 2008, PUMA is entering its own sailing yacht into the Volvo Ocean Race and finishes the race in second place. At the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, sprint hero Usain Bolt smashes the 100m and 200m world records. The year 2010 is marked by the Football World Cup in Africa and a milestone in motorsport. PUMA successfully kicks off the World Cup year at the Africa Cup in Angola with Egypt's Pharaohs winning the Cup of Nations for the third successive time. At the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa PUMA sponsors seven football federations. In November Sebastian Vettel of PUMA supplied Red Bull Racing becomes the youngest-ever Formula One champion at the age of 23 and is voted "German-" as well as "European Sports Man Of The Year 2010".
2012: Stellar Performances at the highest level
In 2012,PUMA once again underlines its ambition to be the clear number 3 brand in the World of Football. In the 2012 UEFA Euro Championships PUMA partnered "Squadra Azzurra" plays an excellent tournament reaching the final. The partnership with German Bundesliga sensation Borussia Dortmund also showcases PUMA's unique team spirit, passion and creativity. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, PUMA outfitted track and field athletes win 19 medals, of which the Jamaican team alone collects twelve. Usain Bolt, who finishes his second successive Olympics with three gold medals, proves his undisputed status as a sporting legend by becoming the first man ever to defend both the 100m and 200m Olympic titles. During the around-the-world Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, the PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG team forges an amazing comeback after a broken mast and finally cross the finish line in Galway, Ireland in third place.
• Foundation of Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik, Herzogenaurach, Germany.
• Competing at the Berlin Olympic Games, American hero Jesse Owens wins four Gold medals
wearing Dassler shoes. During the Games, almost every member of the German Football team
wears Dassler shoes. In total, seven Gold and five Bronze medals as well as two world and three
Olympic records are won and set by athletes wearing Dassler shoes.
• PUMA Schuhfabrik Rudolf Dassler is founded.
• Introduction of the PUMA ATOM, PUMA's first football shoe.
• Rudolf Dassler starts developing and producing football boots with screw-in studs.
• On-going development of the football boot with screw-in studs in cooperation with football
experts such as Sepp Herberger (German national coach).
• In the first post-war football match, several members of the West German national football team
wear PUMA boots, including the scorer of West Germany's first post-war goal, Herbert Burdenski.
• First tests of the SUPER ATOM.
• Josef Barthel of Luxembourg wins PUMA's first Olympic Gold (1500 meters) in Helsinki, Finland
and the US-women relay team wins Gold for the 4x100 meters – all wearing PUMA.
• Production of the SUPER ATOM.
• At the start of the season, the SUPER ATOM is being distributed to top players and selected
• The SUPER ATOM is worn for the first time by top players of the clubs Borussia Dortmund (10
players), Eintracht Frankfurt (1 player), VfB Stuttgart (9 players) as well as 1. FC Kaiserslautern
(7 players). Among others, two players wearing the SUPER ATOM for the first time are Horst
Eckel und Werner Liebrich, who, due to their excellent performance in the field, advance into the
German national team.
• Advertisement campaign "Deutschlands Fußball-Elite"(Germany´s football elite) accompanies the
successful launch of the SUPER ATOM.
• Development and first tests of the enhanced version BRASIL.
• In Yokohama, West Germany's Heinz Fütterer sets a new world record in the 100 metres sporting
PUMA shoes.
• Launch of BRASIL with top football players of the club Hannover 96.
• In May, during the finals of the German football championships, Hannover 96 wins against 1. FC
Kaiserslautern in Hamburg and is crowned the Champion of the German premier league that
season. Eight out of eleven champions wear the PUMA screw-in stud boots BRASIL.
• Launch of the advertisement campaign "So war es in Hamburg" ("That's what it was like in
• Swedish and Brazilian national team football players, competing at the World Cup in Sweden,
wear PUMA shoes sporting PUMA's signature formstrip for the first time.
• The company is transformed into a limited partnership, registered under PUMASportschuhfabriken
Rudolf Dassler KG.
• West Germany's Armin Hary wins the 100 meter sprint at the Olympic Games in Rome wearing
PUMA track shoes.
• PUMA is the first sports shoe manufacturer to use the technologically advanced vulcanization
production technique.
• Pelé, for the second time in a row, wins a World Cup in PUMA boots, in Chile.
• Belgium's Gaston Roelants (3000 meters steeplechase), Great Britain's Mary Rand (long jump)
and Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila (marathon) win Gold medals wearing PUMA at the Tokyo Olympic
• At the World Cup in England, legendary PUMA KING football shoes are sported for the first time
by Portuguese superstar Eusebio, top scorer and "Player of the Tournament".
• Four PUMA athletes win Gold medals at the Olympic Games in Mexico: Tommie Smith (200
meters), Lee Evans (400 meters/4 x 400 meters), Willie Davenport (110 meters high hurdles) and
Bob Seagren (pole-vault).
• Wearing PUMA track shoes, Jim Hines is the first man to run the 100 meter sprint in less than 10
• PUMA is the first manufacturer to offer sports shoes with Velcro® fasteners.
• Quarterback Joe Namath leads the New York Jets (American football team) to success in the
Super Bowl III, wearing PUMA shoes.
• Pelé – again "Player of the Tournament" – wears PUMA KING boots and helps Brazil to win his
and his country's third World Cup title by beating Italy in the Mexico finals.
• At the Munich Olympics, PUMA Gold medal winners are Mary Peters, USA (pentathlon), John Akii-
Bua, Uganda (400 meters hurdles), Randy Williams, USA (long jump) and Klaus Wolfermann,
(West) Germany (javelin).
• America's Dwight Stones sets three world records in the men's high jump in PUMA shoes.
• At the World Cup in Germany, "Player of the Tournament" and Dutch legend Johan Cruyff wears
PUMA KING football boots. Cruyff also wins the prestigious "European Footballer of the Year"
award for the second year in a row.
• PUMA introduces the revolutionary S.P.A. technology.
• Argentina's tennis player Guillermo Vilas wins the French and US Open wearing PUMA.
• PUMA athlete Allan Simonsen – player for the Danish national team and German football club
Borussia Mönchengladbach - is voted "European Footballer of the Year".
• Guillermo Vilas wins the Australian Open wearing PUMA.
• Argentina's football player Mario Kempes leads his country to its first World Cup triumph on home
soil. Kempes is top scorer of the tournament and wears PUMA shoes together with nine other
players on the winning team.
• America's Renaldo Nehemiah sets three world records in the 110 meter hurdles, wearing PUMA
• Italy's winger Bruno Conti wears PUMA shoes during the World Cup in Spain and is an integral
part of the winning team.
• Diego Armando Maradona of Argentina plays his first World Cup tournament in PUMA boots.
• Armin A. Dassler, son of PUMA founder Rudolf Dassler, invents the PUMA DUOFLEX sole.
• American track star Sydnee Maree sets a new 1500 meters world record in PUMA spikes.
• Evelyn Ashford wins two Gold medals (100 meters/4 x 100 meters) in PUMA spikes at the
Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
• Tennis player Martina Navratilova (Czech Republic and later the US) wins Wimbledon wearing
PUMA shoes and sportswear.
• German tennis player Boris Becker wins Wimbledon, wearing PUMA shoes and playing with a
PUMA racket. He has been the youngest and only unseeded player to win this prestigious event
until today.
• The company PUMA goes public and the PUMA stock is traded on the Munich and Frankfurt stock
• Argentinean football player Diego Maradona leads his country to the World Cup title, wearing
PUMA football boots. He is voted "Player of the Tournament".
• PUMA team Werder Bremen wins the German Football Championship.
• PUMA launches its TRINOMIC sport shoe system.
• PUMA presents INSPECTOR, a system for children's shoes; the mid-sole window enables
monitoring of growth.
• PUMA athlete, German midfielder Lothar Matthäus captains Germany to the country's first World
Cup title since 1974. He is then voted "European Footballer of the Year", "World Footballer of the
Year", and "World Sportsman of the Year".
• PUMA introduces its high-tech PUMA DISC SYSTEM sports shoe.
• PUMA enters into an exclusive partnership with Pittards, a premier leather manufacturing
company based in England, which develops a new leather material exclusively for PUMA.
• PUMA sponsored football team, Werder Bremen, wins the UEFA European Winners Cup in Lisbon.
• At the Barcelona Olympics, Heike Drechsler (long jump), Dieter Baumann (5000 meters), both
German, and Great Britain's Linford Christie (100 meters) all clinch Gold medals wearing PUMA
• PUMA increases its capital by DM 20 million; share capital amounts to DM 70 million.
• Jochen Zeitz is appointed Chairman and CEO.
• Phase I of PUMA's long-term corporate development plan is initiated whereby the aim is to
restructure the company and establish a solid financial footing.
• Proventus/Aritmos B.V. become majority shareholder.
• At the Track and Field World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany's Heike Drechsler, Jamaica's
Merlene Ottey, Linford Christie and Colin Jackson (both of UK) - together "PUMA's Fantastic Four"
- all win Gold medals. Colin Jackson (110 meter hurdles) sets a new world record with 12.91
seconds that has not been broken until today.
• PUMA team Werder Bremen wins the German Football Championship.
• Merlene Ottey and Colin Jackson set indoor world records over the 50 meter dash and the 60
meter high hurdles respectively.
• PUMA's successful grass root initiative Street Soccer is born.
• PUMA posts a profit (DEM 25 million) for the first time since its IPO in 1986.
• Argentinean statement team and PUMA partner Velez Sarsfield (as reigning South American Copa
Libertadores Champions) win the World Club Championship in Tokyo by beating A.C. Milan 2-0.
• Within one hour of each other, Linford Christie sets two indoor sprint records wearing PUMA
spikes at the 60 meter (6.47 seconds) and 200 meter (20.25 seconds) races.
• At the World Championships in Göteborg, Great Britain's Jonathan Edwards clinches Gold and
sets a new world record (18.29 meters, which still stands) in the triple jump. Merlene Ottey takes
Gold in the 200 meter sprint.
• Spanish PUMA team Real Saragossa wins the UEFA European Cup Winners' Cup.
• PUMA presents its PUMA CELL technology, the first foam-free midsole.
• PUMA acquires its licensee in North America and establishes "PUMA North America, Inc." as a
wholly-owned subsidiary.
• PUMA AG is included in the German mid-cap index M-Dax.
• PUMA introduces a new Pittards leather - Pittards Soccer 2000 - developed exclusively for the
KING boot. This new generation of the KING boot is first unveiled at EURO '96 in England.
Wearing the boot at its debut, the Czech team reaches the finals.
• PUMA Team Atletico Madrid wins the Spanish Football League and Cup titles.
• PUMA celebrates the 2nd Street Soccer Cup Final in London, England, with 28 countries
• Phase II of PUMA's long-term development plan starts. Its aim is to reposition the brand through
investment in marketing and product development.
• PUMA's new Italian subsidiary starts operations.
• PUMA's first joint venture is established in Chile.
• PUMA achieves the fourth consecutive record result in operations.
• The US film and production company Monarchy/Recency Enterprises acquires shares from
Proventus AB and increases its shareholding in PUMA to 25 %. Thus, it becomes the company's
new majority shareholder.
• PUMA becomes the official supplier of the Cameroon National Football Team.
• PUMA CELLERATOR: the first CELL football shoe to feature cushioning technology without
featuring a midsole is unveiled.
• As the first sports brand, PUMA merges sports and fashion and enters a co-operation with
designer Jil Sander. PUMA and Jil Sander jointly launch a footwear collection.
• PUMA signs a sponsoring agreement with Serena Williams and also officially sponsors the Corel
WTA Tour.
• PUMA successfully places products in Hollywood movies such as "City of Angels", starring Nicolas
Cage and Meg Ryan.
• In football, PUMA boots appear on the feet of 23% of the players that make an appearance at
the World Cup in France.
• PUMA partners up with North Carolina super basketball talent Vince Carter who will soon go on to
join Toronto Raptors in the NBA draft.
• PUMA acquires its licensee PUMA UK from Dunlop Slazenger and turns it into a wholly-owned
• PUMA signs boxing star Oscar De La Hoya and French striker Nicolas Anelka.
• At the IAAF World Championships in Athletics held in Maebishi, Japan, Colin Jackson wins the 60
meter hurdles race. Jamie Baulch wins the 400 meter event.
• Four PUMA track and field stars take the World Champion title in the IAAF World Championships
in Sevilla, Spain: Colin Jackson (110 meter hurdles), Wilson Kipketer, Denmark (800 meter),
Christopher Kosgei, Kenya (3000 meter steeplechase), Tsiamita Paraskevi, Greece (triple jump),
and Noah Ngeny, Kenya, breaks the world record for the 1000 meters in 2:11.96 min.
• With the support of LogoAthletic, PUMA returns to American Team Sports and becomes the
official on-field supplier of the U.S. National Football League (NFL). PUMA also outfits nine teams
of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
• PUMA opens its first Concept Store in Santa Monica, California.
• Serena Williams wins her first Grand Slam tournament, the U.S. Open, by beating Martina Hingis.
• PUMA becomes the official supplier of the National Football Team of Egypt.
• PUMA signs Cameroon player Samuel Eto'o.
• PUMA team S.S. Lazio wins the last UEFA European Cup Winners Cup in Birmingham and later
clinch the European Super Cup by beating Manchester United in Monaco.
• PUMA basketball star Vince Carter is named NBA "Rookie of the Year".
• Model Christy Turlington and PUMA jointly launch the Nuala yoga-inspired collection.
• PUMA enters a partnership with Porsche and Sparco to produce fireproof footwear for racecar
• PUMA launches its first online store on www.puma.com.
• PUMA triumphs in Italy as statement team S.S. Lazio wins a league and cup treble (Seria A, the
Italian Cup and the Italian Super Cup).
• PUMA team Cameroon goes on to win the Africa Cup beating Nigeria on penalties in Lagos. Six
months later, they win their country's first ever Olympic Gold medal in Sydney.
• Samuel Eto'o is voted 'Young African Player of the Year' by the Confederation of African Football.
• Greek sprinter Konstantinos Kenteris (200 meters) and Kenyan mid-distance specialist Noah
Ngeny (1500 meters) – both PUMA athletes - win Gold at the Sydney Olympic Games.
• PUMA continues to strengthen its portfolio of partnerships by teaming up with Jordan Grand Prix
to enter the world of Motor Racing.
• PUMA announces the acquisition of Scandinavia's Tretorn Group. The acquisition enables PUMA
to gain a stronger foothold in the Scandinavian market and to allow the company to regain its
own distribution rights in that area.
• PUMA launches an international joint line of footwear with Japanese designer, Yasuhiro Mihara.
• PUMA unveils its 2002 World Cup Football advertising campaign featuring Cameroon's National
• Serena Williams advances to the U.S. Open semi finals to participate in an "All-Williams" final.
• Greece's sprinter Konstantinos Kenteris continues to dominate the 200 meters and secures
another Gold medal at the Edmonton World Championships.
• PUMA statement player, El Hadji Diouf (Senegal), is named "African Footballer of the Year".
• PUMA signs Travis Pastrana, world champion motocross racer, respected for his mastery of three
different motocross disciplines: freestyle, supercross and outdoor.
• 2002 marks the beginning of Phase III of PUMA's long-term development plan. Phase III aims to
further explore the potential of the brand by generating desirable and profitable growth.
• The new CELLERATOR football boot, SHUDOH is launched.
• Cameroon wins the Africa Cup, wearing PUMA's revolutionary sleeveless jersey.
• PUMA and Serena Williams unveil the 2002 Serena Williams Tennis Collection.
• Serena Williams wins the French Open wearing a sleeveless tennis dress in support of the
Cameroon Football Team at the World Cup.
• Serena Williams wins Wimbledon and attains, for the first time, a number one ranking.
• Serena Williams wins the U.S. Open wearing a black PUMA catsuit.
• PUMA becomes the official supplier of the National football team of Tunisia.
• PUMA launches 96 HOURS.
• Motocross athlete Travis Pastrana takes the Gold medal at the Gravity Games by completing
seven backflips.
• PUMA's Nuala collection launches the Christy bag, a limited edition yoga mat bag created in
collaboration with designer Marc Jacobs.
• PUMA debuts limited edition Top Winner Thrift, 510 pairs of one-of-a-kind shoes created from
vintage clothing.
• PUMA signs agreements with both the Jamaican Olympic Federation and the Jamaican Athletics
• France's Robert Pires is named "Footballer of the Year" in England after an incredible season with
• PUMA signs Italy's national goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon as he transfers from Parma to Juventus.
• At the Korea/Japan World Cup, PUMA player El Hadji Diouf is selected for the FIFA World Cup All
Star Team and Korea's Jung Hwan Ahn tantalizes a whole world by eliminating Italy with a
"Golden Goal" to secure a place for the host country in the semi-finals.
• Spain's Chema Martinez (10.000 meters), Denmark's Wilson Kipketer (800 meters) and Greece's
Konstantinos Kenteris (200 meters) all win Gold at the European Championships in Munich.
• PUMA announces the partnership with the Italian National football team.
• The Jamaican sponsorship comes to life on TV and in print with the spring brand campaign.
• PUMA signs on as the official supplier of apparel and footwear to the FIA World Rally
Championship, WRC.
• PUMA establishes PUMA Japan K.K. as a subsidiary, taking over Japanese Footwear and
Accessories business from its former licensee.
• PUMA's majority shareholder Monarchy/Regency sells its shareholdings in PUMA to a broad base
of institutional investors in a successful transaction. Since its foundation in 1948 it is the first time
that PUMA AG operates without a majority shareholder.
• PUMA launches Paintura Pitch through the partnerships of artisan groups Stoique and Scrawl
Collective produce exclusive, one-of-a-kind footballs and jerseys.
• PUMA launches 4some, a new European cross training event for women.
• Shanghai Tang becomes a PUMA partner for the creation of SHUDOH TANG in support of the
Women's World Cup.
• Extreme athlete Travis Pastrana furthers his string of wins by taking the Gold at the X-Games.
• PUMA announces a partnership with Neil Barrett.
• Fashion photographer, Juergen Teller, shoots the fall 2003 brand campaign HELLO.
• PUMA and BMW Williams F1 Team sign a multi-year contract and PUMA becomes the official
• PUMA announces a collaborative partnership with world-renowned designer Philippe Starck.
• PUMA and the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team sign a multi-year contract.
• PUMA introduces the revolutionary All-In-One 'UniQT' for the Cameroon football team at the 2004
African Cup of Nations. The new 'UniQT' is the successor of the groundbreaking PUMA sleeveless
shirt worn by the Cameroon team in the 2002 African Cup of Nations.
• PUMA team Tunisia wins African Cup of Nations, ahead of fellow participating PUMA teams
Cameroon and Egypt.
• Samuel Eto'o is voted the Confederation of African Football's 'African Player of the Year'.
• PUMA and designer Neil Barrett present the new 2004 Italian National Team kit. Named creative
director of PUMA's Italia Collection in 2003, Neil Barrett provided the creative vision of the new
playing kit and personally designed the official formalwear for the team.
• At the Olympic Games in Athens, Jamaica's women relay teams win Bronze for the 4x400 meter
and Gold for the 4x100 meter relays.
• PUMA and Ferrari S.p.A. announce that they have signed a multi-year contract, which becomes
effective on January 1, 2005. PUMA becomes the official licensee of replica and fan merchandise
as well as supplier of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, the most successful Formula 1 team of all times.
• PUMA becomes the official supplier of racing shoes to Michael Schumacher.
• PUMA becomes the official supplier of the National football team of Mozambique.
• PUMA announces the signing of the Swedish Athletic Association. The agreement commences in
January and names PUMA the official apparel supplier for the national team at all major events.
• PUMA announces a new partnership with football legend Pelé. A brand initiative positions Pelé as
the brand's football ambassador.
• Asset Management Company Mayfair acquires a share of 16.91% in PUMA.
• PUMA and the Moroccan Athletic Association sign a long-term contract.
• PUMA signs the National football teams of Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Togo.
• Mayfair increases its shareholding in PUMA to 25.27%.
• Samuel Eto'o is voted the Confederation of African Football's 'African Player of the Year'.
• PUMA team Egypt wins the African Cup of Nations. Other PUMA teams participating are Angola,
Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia.
• PUMA launches Phase IV of its long-term oriented business plan with the long-term mission of
becoming the most desirable Sportlifestyle company.
• PUMA announces a partnership with the National football teams of Angola and Ghana.
• PUMA enters into partnership with United for Africa, a campaign of over 30 aid organizations
aiming to improve living conditions in Africa.
• PUMA signs Ivory Coast player Emmanuel Eboué.
• To kick-off Phase IV, PUMA starts majority owned Joint Ventures together with former license
partners in Japan (apparel business), China/Hong Kong, Taiwan , Argentina and Turkey and
founds fully owned subsidiaries in India and Dubai for the Middle East region.
• PUMA launches its new Golf collection. PUMA Golf offers performance footwear, apparel and
• With twelve teams, PUMA is the dominant kit supplier at the World Cup in Germany: Italy, Czech
Republic, Poland, Switzerland, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Iran, as well as the five African teams
Ghana, Angola, Togo, Ivory Coast, and Tunisia. PUMA has gained brand visibility throughout 56%
of the tournament, making PUMA the most prominent brand in terms of visibility.
• For the first time in company history, a PUMA sponsored national team wins the Word Cup
championship: The Squadra Azzura from Italy beats France 5:3 after penalty shoot outs on July
9th in Berlin and is crowned World Cup champion for the fourth time.
• For the first time PUMA is one of the main sponsors of the Athletic European Championships in
• The PUMA share is included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. The puma.safe concept is a
tool PUMA developed to continuously improve social and environmental standards in its supply
• PUMA announces collaboration with world renowned Dutch designer Marcel Wanders.
• With the opening of a new store in Manhattan's Union Square, PUMA introduces the launch of the
new PUMA store design.
• PUMA and Ducati, the world's premier motorcycle manufacturer and one of the top Moto GP
teams announce a new cooperation.
• PUMA forms an alliance with the American photographer David LaChapelle.
• PUMA and the Cameroon Football Association (FECAFOOT) announce a long-term extension of
their partnership initiated back in 1997.
• PUMA becomes the official supplier of the Moroccan Royal Football Federation .
• PUMA becomes the official supplier of all four Red Bull Motorsport teams: Red Bull Racing,
Scuderia Torro Rosso, Red Bull Nascar and Red Bull Air Race.
• PUMA announces that it will enter the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 with its own boat. In addition,
PUMA will be the official supplier and the official licensee of replica merchandise for the offshore
ocean race. The race will begin in October 2008 in Alicante, Spain and will end in June 2009 in
St. Petersburg. By joining the race, PUMA enters a new premium category and is the first
Sportlifestyle company to participate in a venture of this kind.
• PUMA becomes the official supplier of the Namibian Football Association.
• Mayfair sells its PUMA-stake of 25.14 % to French luxury group PPR for the price of EUR 330 per
share. PPR also makes a voluntary public take-over offer for all outstanding shares of 330 EUR.
PPR owns a share of 62.1% in PUMA after the takeover offer closes on July 11th.
• PUMA takes back its license in South Korea and serves the market directly through its 100%
subsidiary PUMA Korea, effective January 1, 2008.
• PUMA announces the appointment of Melody Harris-Jensbach as Deputy CEO of the PUMA Board
of Management as of January 1st 2008.
• François-Henri Pinault, Jean-François Palus and Grégoire Amigues move into the supervisory
board. The supervisory board appoints François-Henri Pinault unanimously as its chairman.
• Jochen Zeitz is appointed member of the Board of Directors of Harley Davidson.
• Jochen Zeitz is appointed member of the Executive Committee and non-voting member of the
Board of Directors of PPR.
• PUMA enters into a long-term partnership with the global organization Peace One Day.
• Stefano Caroti is appointed as Member of the PUMA Board of Management and takes on the
responsibility for the new function of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) as of August, 2008.
• Reiner Seiz, as Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSO), and Antonio Bertone, as Chief Marketing Officer
(CMO), are appointed as Deputy Members of the Board of Management as of January 2008.
• In September PUMA announces the extension of the contract of Jochen Zeitz, Chairman and
CEO, ahead of schedule for the following five years until 2012.
• PUMA issues its new Sustainability Report 2005/2006, which was verified and certified by German
Technical Service and Assurance Provider TÜV for the first time. PUMA's Sustainability Report
obtained the best GRI application level (A+) – as the first company in the sporting goods
• In November PUMA celebrates the ground-breaking of its new headquarters PUMAVision
Headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
• PUMA announces the set up of the 100% owned subsidiary PUMA SPORTS ROMANIA from
January 1st 2008.
• PUMA establishes the 100% owned subsidiary PUMA SPORT HRVATSKA in Zagreb.
• PUMA and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) announce a multi-year extension of their
successful partnership through the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
• As leading supplier of the 2008 Africa Cup, PUMA outfits nine of the 16 teams.
• The Egyptian Football National Team wins the Africa Cup. For the 6th time, a PUMA Team wins
the title.
• PUMA and the Football Federation of the Ivory Coast announce the extension of their successful
partnership through the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
• PUMA extends the contract with the Swedish Athletic Association until the end of 2012.
• PUMA appoints Hussein Chalayan, global designer, artist and film maker, as the Creative Director
for PUMA, responsible for designing, creating and developing the sport fashion collections of the
brand. PUMA also acquires a majority stake in Chalayan's business and brand Hussein Chalayan.
• PUMA and the Swiss Football Association (SFV) announce a multi-year extension of their
successful partnership, which was first initiated in 1998, through the 2010 World Cup and beyond
the 2012 European Championships.
• Presentation of the new racing boat for the Volvo Ocean Race 2008 – 2009 in Boston Harbor,
christened "il Mostro" by actress Salma Hayek.
• PUMA by Mihara Yasuhiro launches its new sport-fashion apparel collection that complements the
PUMA by Mihara Yasuhiro footwear.
• PUMA athlete Usain Bolt breaks the world record, when he clocks 9.72 seconds in the 100 meters
in New York City on May 31st.
• PUMA sponsors five national teams at the European Football Championship 2008 including the
World Champion Italy as well as the host nations Austria and Switzerland.
• The licensing contract for socks and new licensing contract for bodywear with Dobotex is
• PUMA sponsors 16 national teams at the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing.
• At the Omlympic Games in Beijing, PUMA's outstanding athlete "Lightning" Bolt sets a new 100
meters world record at 9.69 seconds, smashing his own mark, and sprints 200 meters in a world
record time of 19.30 seconds, beating Michael Johnson's 1996 record by two hundredths of a
second. Bolt wins his third gold medal as Jamaica shatters the world record at 4 x 100 meters
relay in 37.10 seconds.
• PUMA and Sergio Rossi start to collaborate and launch a capsule collection of women's footwear
during the Milan fashion week.
• PUMA introduces PUMAVision, a concept PUMA intends to guide its work with its three core
programs puma.creative, puma.safe and puma.peace. PUMAVision is PUMA's way of uniting all of
its sustainable projects and initiatives as a corporation and giving them a coherent direction.
• PUMA and the global organization Peace One Day celebrate the "International Day of Peace" on
September 21st. puma.peace and One Day One Goal facilitate over 400 peace games played in
Africa and across the globe.
• PUMA and German premier league football club VfB Stuttgart continue their successful
partnership by signing a multi-year extension of the agreement until 2015.
• PUMA produces 150,000 pieces using Cotton Made in Africa. By using this high-quality raw
material, PUMA supports the Aid by Trade Foundation's "Cotton Made in Africa" initiative which
helps improving living conditions of African cotton farmers.
• PUMA introduces Fair Trade certified footballs to endorse a campaign focusing on the prevention
of juvenile delinquency in South Africa.
• The launch of puma.creative Mobility Award program sends over 220 artists and art professionals
to important African cultural events.
• PUMA and the Egyptian Football Association announce a multi-year extension of their successful
partnership beyond the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
• PUMA becomes majority shareholder of its Dutch licensee Dobotex as of January 1.
• PUMA acquires 100 percent of the Corporate Merchandising firm Brandon Company AB as of
January 1.
• PUMA introduces a restructuring program in light of the difficult market conditions in order to
secure longterm and profitable growth. The restructuring measures include the optimization of
the retail portfolio, the global organizational structure as well as operational processes.
• puma.creative launches a social network for African artists, Creative African Network:
• PUMA supports the environmental movie "HOME". The movie is released worldwide on June 5th
— the World Environment Day. Through the PUMAVision category puma.creative PUMA endorses
showings of the movie in cultural institutions in Africa and beyond.
• PUMA extends its range of sustainable products and launches African-themed fashion collections,
featuring apparel made of Cotton Made in Africa.
• PUMA's sailing yacht "il mostro" and the PUMA Ocean Racing Crew finish their maiden Volvo
Ocean Race, "the Everest of Sailing", in second place on 27 June in St. Petersburg, Russia.
• PUMA supports the "Meat Free Monday" campaign launched by Sir Paul McCartney and his
daughters Stella and Mary. By cutting out meat consumption on Mondays, this campaign works
towards minimizing global greenhouse gas emissions through reducing methane that is released
by cattle.
• Klaus Bauer is appointed as Member of the Board of Management, effective August 1, 2009, and
assumes the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer (COO). At the same time, Chief
Financial Officer (CFO) Dieter Bock resigns from the Board due to his personal life planning.
• Together with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) PUMA takes part in a pilot project to support
sustainability reporting of five of its suppliers.
• PUMA Athlete and three-time Jamaican Olympic gold medallist Usain 'Lightning' Bolt delivers a
stunning first place finish in the 100m and 200m at the IAAF World Championship in Berlin. He
shatters his own world records in the 100m race when he clocks the fastest time ever recorded
for that distance in just 9.58 seconds, and in the 200m with an astonishing 19.19 seconds finish.
• PUMA publishes its fifth sustainability report. (http://safe.puma.com/us/en)
• On Peace Day– 21 September – PUMA shakes hands with its competitor adidas for the first time
after 60 years in support of the peace initiative Peace One Day. As a sign of amicable
cooperation, employees of both companies play football together. The joint initiative generates
an unprecedented media coverage worldwide and raises awareness for Peace One Day around
the world.
• PUMA and Peace One Day host "One Day One Goal" football matches in all 192 UN member
states, including 52 countries in Africa.
• PUMA and French mobile communications company SAGEM Wireless sign a license agreement
with global reach to launch a PUMA mobile phone in the second quarter of 2010.
• PUMA partners with Africa Express and awards 125 African musicians with Mobility Awards to
participate in a concert in Paris, France.
• PUMA endorses the campaign "Seal the Deal!" led by the United Nations. This campaign aims at
strengthening political will and public support for reaching a comprehensive global climate
agreement at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• PUMA opens its new cutting-edge Development Center in Vietnam – representing a milestone in
the Sportlifestyle and sporting goods industry. The whole complex is the new home for footwear
and apparel prototype and sample suppliers.
• PUMA launches the v1.10 product line inspired by African football. It is supported by the Love =
Football campaign set in Africa and features African football stars such as Samuel Eto'o,
Emmanuel Eboué, John Mensah and Chinedou Obasi.
• PUMA is the first Sportlifestyle Company to join the Climate Neutral Network of the United
Nations Environment Programme. The cooperation underlines PUMA's efforts to further reduce its
CO2 emission.
• PUMA and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) enter into a strategic partnership to support
biodiversity worldwide and specific initiatives in Africa. The key fundraising lever is the revolutionary
new Africa Unity Kit - the world's first 'continental football kit' designed to be worn by all
African football national teams that are sponsored by PUMA.
• PUMA team Egypt wins the African Cup of Nations for the third successive time and seventh time
• PUMA's Creative Director Hussein Chalayan acquires PUMA's stake in the Fashion Company
Chalayan LLP.
• PUMA acquires equipment brand Cobra Golf and reinforces the commitment to its sports performance business
by strengthening PUMA's growing Golf category. Through the acquisition, PUMA is now able to offer
full golf ranging, including footwear, apparel, accessories and clubs.
• PUMA acquires a stake of 20.1% in the leading ecotourism and conservation company Wilderness Holdings Ltd.
based in Botswana and Johannesburg, Wilderness is operating under the premise that it is building sustainable
conservation economies through experience-based tourism that contributes to both biodiversity conservation and
development of rural communities. The shareholding is part of PUMA's commitment to social and environmental affairs.
• PUMA implements a cutting-edge sustainable packaging and distribution system, which will save more than 60% of paper
and water annually. Renowned industrial designer Yves Béhar designs a "Clever Little Bag" to replace the cardboard shoebox with a re-usable shoe bag.
• PUMA announces that it will compete again in the Volvo Ocean Race. The Around-the-World Race, known as the "Everest of Sailing", begins in
October 2011 in Alicante, Spain, and ends in Galway, Ireland, in June 2012.
• PUMA announces that in 2010 the company will completely offset its own global CO2 emissions to become
the first carbon neutral company within the sportlifestyle industry.
• PUMA expands its project in cooperation with The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)
in GRI's GANTSCh program which supports supplier factories to report on their social and environmental initiatives.
PUMA agrees with 20 key suppliers in South East Asia and other major sourcing regions to issue their own
sustainability reports from 2011 on.
• PUMA.Safe, PUMA's program to monitor suppliers for labour standards, is again accredited by the Fair Labor Association (FLA).
The FLA is a non-profit organization that promotes improved working conditions in supply chains worldwide.
PUMA has been an FLA member since 2004 and received full FLA accreditation in 2007.
• 2010 is marked by the Football World Cup in South Africa, PUMA's home-away-from-home. PUMA sponsors seven of the teams
that qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa, including the African Teams Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Algeria,
alongside Italy, Switzerland and Uruguay.
• On Peace Day, September 21, PUMA and adidas relive the peace gesture from the previous year, setting up a Peace One Day Football tournament,
where PUMA and adidas employees play in mixed teams together with representatives from the City and schools of Herzogenaurach,
the home town of the two companies. PUMA.Peace and Peace One Day also instigate thousands of football matches globally.
• Jamaican sprint superhero, world record holder and Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt renews his sponsorship contract
with PUMA through to the end of 2013. Bolt will play a pivotal role in PUMA's global marketing campaigns and serve as the
central figure in the sportlifestyle company's London 2012 Olympic program.
• PUMA announces that it plans to transform into a European Corporation, trading under the name of PUMA SE (SE = Societas Europaea).
PUMA CEO Jochen Zeitz is to become Executive Chairman of the one-tier PUMA SE Board and also Head of PPR's new Sport & Lifestyle Division.
In addition Zeitz becomes PPR's Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) with immediate effect.
• PUMA announces it is "back on the attack" with a five-year growth plan to fully reach its brand potential of € 4 billion by 2015.
• On November 14, Sebastian Vettel of PUMA supplied Red Bull Racing becomes the youngest-ever Formula One champion at the age of 23
and is voted "German-" as well as "European Sports Man Of The Year 2010".
• PUMA receives the German Sustainability Award 2010 in the category "Most Sustainable Strategy" for its ambitious sustainability concept
PUMAVision on November 27. The award has been established to reward role model corporations that combine business success with social responsibility
and environmental protection.
• On December 1, PUMA and the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) extend their successful partnership, which was formed in 1996, through to at least 2022.
PUMA's and this football federation's enthusiasm for exceptional innovations and outfits has become legendary, including the first sleeveless kit for a
football team ever (2002), the first all-in-one kit (2004) and the PUMA Africa Unity Kit for all PUMA sponsored African teams launched in 2010.
• PUMA receives the "Award for the Best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiative" at the prestigious Peace and Sport Awards 2010 on December 1 for its
PUMA.Peace program and multilayered campaigns to support global peace. The awards ceremony is part of the 4th annual Peace and Sport International Forum in Monaco.
• PUMA has been rated sustainability leader within its sector for Clothing, Accessories and Footwear of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), one of the most
recognized indexes for sustainable investment worldwide. PUMA's longstanding work and efforts to improve social, labour and environmental standards throughout its operations
date back to 1999.
• PUMA acquires 100% of its long-term Chinese joint venture Liberty China Holding Ltd., effective January 1, 2011, to be in full control of its business activities in China and Hong Kong.
• PUMA announces that Franz Koch is designated to become Chief Executive Officer (CEO) upon the transformation of the company into a European Corporation (SE). Koch will succeed PUMA's current CEO Jochen Zeitz after 18 years in this position. With immediate effect Koch joins the PUMA Board of Management as Chief Strategic Officer while Jochen Zeitz is designated to become Executive Chairman of the one-tier PUMA SE Board.
• PUMA and PPR HOME announce the first results of an unprecedented Environmental Profit & Loss Account. As the first company to provide such details, PUMA has published an economic valuation of the environmental impacts caused by GHG emissions and water consumption along its value chain. The first results of PUMA's E P&L have revealed that the direct ecological impact of PUMA's operations translates to the equivalent of €7.2 million of the overall impact valuation. An additional €87.2 million falls upon four tiers along the supply chain.
• PUMA announces that it will acquire 100% of its Dutch licensee Dobotex, which develops, produces and distributes PUMA socks and bodywear.
• PUMA enters into a new partnership with the South African Football Association, lasting beyond the next two FIFA World Cups. PUMA will provide the official playing kits for all associated South African teams, including the National 'A', Youth and Women's teams. PUMA is also SAFA's official partner in relation to replica kits, fanwear and other merchandise.
• Ferrari and PUMA announce a long-term extension to their partnership. PUMA, the sport-lifestyle brand with the longest heritage in motorsport, will continue to be the official licensing partner for Ferrari branded products and the official supplier of team and race wear for Scuderia Ferrari. On the back of highly successful six year collaboration, this new agreement will see the two companies work together for a further long term period.
• PUMA transforms into a European Corporation and trades under the name of PUMA SE. Franz Koch becomes Chief Executive Officer. Jochen Zeitz takes over his new role as Chairman of the Administrative Board of PUMA SE after 18 years as Chairman and CEO of PUMA AG. At the same time, Jochen Zeitz will lead PPR's Sport & Lifestyle Division with his extensive and unique expertise in the sportlifestyle sector, while supporting the drive to sustainability as PPR's Chief Sustainability Officer.
• PUMA becomes the Official Sportswear Partner for the 34th America's Cup and outfits ORACLE Racing in its Quest to Defend the 34th America's Cup.
• PUMA enters into a new multi-year partnership with the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS Formula One Team becoming the exclusive licensing partner to MERCEDES GP PETRONAS for footwear, apparel and accessories and an official Team Partner, effective from 1 January 2012.
• PUMA seals a new partnership with the German Bundesliga Champions, Borussia Dortmund. Effective from the 1st July 2012, this new technical partnership will see PUMA provide official playing kits for all associated Borussia Dortmund teams, including the senior mens and all youth teams, as well as becoming the club's official partner in relation to replica kits, fanwear and other merchandise.
• PUMA reveals an inspiring and contemporary collaboration, launching technical football kits for PUMA's 10 partnered African National football teams. Each kit is designed by a renowned artist from the Creative African Network (CAN) – a PUMA platform connecting and promoting artists from and in Africa.
• PUMA and PPR HOME, the PPR Group's sustainability initiative, complete PUMA's unprecedented Environmental Profit and Loss Account which values the company's operations and supply chain impacts at € 145 million adding the impacts of € 51 million resulting from land use, air pollution and waste along the value chain to the previously announced € 94 million for GHG emissions and water consumption. PUMA's Parent Company PPR announces its Luxury and Sport & Lifestyle Brands to implement a Group EP&L by 2015.
• PUMA announces partnerships with Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas club, one of the most important teams in Brazil, as well as US Città di Palermo, one of the most representative football clubs in the Italian Soccer panorama.
• PUMA enters into a new multi-year partnership with BMW Motorsport to become the Official Supplier of team and racewear for all BMW Motorsport racing operations, including DTM, ALMS and various high-profile long-distance races such as 24h Nürburgring.
• Through a new partnership with the Slovak Football Association PUMA becomes the Official Supplier of apparel and equipment for all the associated Slovak National Football teams, including the men's A team, Olympic, Junior and the Women's National Football team.
• PUMA confirms a new long-term contractual partnership with the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). Through this agreement, PUMA holds the status of 'Official Master Licensee of the FIGC', effective through and beyond the next two FIFA World CupsTM in Brazil and Russia and continues as the Official Partner to the FIGC in relation to playing kits and replica wear for all FIGC national teams.
• In April 2012, PUMA launches a new product recycling program in PUMA Stores, the PUMA "Bring Me Back" Program. Initially launched in German Stores and outlets, the company has installed recycling bins for customers to return used shoes, clothing and accessories of any brand, thus reducing waste and keeping products out of landfills.
• PUMA is named global leader in EIRIS' Sustainability Ratings report, which assesses the sustainability performance of over 2,000 global large cap companies.
• PUMA enters a new multiple year partnership with Spanish La Liga club RCD Espanyol. Effective from the 1st July 2012, this new technical and licensing partnership sees PUMA provide official playing kits for all associated RCD Espanyol teams, including the Espanyol B Reserve team and all youth teams.
• PUMA establishes a 100% owned subsidiary in Israel.
• PUMA is proud to introduce evoSPEED, the groundbreaking performance collection that for the first time in the brand's history, features product offerings for all PUMA sport categories.
• The Sportlifestyle company is the overall winner of the 2012 Guardian Sustainable Business Awards and also won the award in the category "Biodiversity" for the PUMA Environmental Profit and Loss Account (E P&L).
• The Jamaica Olympic Association and PUMA launch the Jamaican Team uniforms for the London 2012 Olympic Games™, including podium and ceremony wear with the help of Jamaican Track Athlete and World's Fastest man Usain Bolt. Fashion designer Cedella Marley, daughter of Reggae icon the late Bob Marley, unveiled her designs alongside Usain Bolt at the launch in London.
• PUMA opens the first sustainable PUMA Store in India revolutionizing the concept of retail spaces globally. The store – located in the Bangalore suburb Indiranagar – has been locally developed and sourced and incorporates a number of revolutionary and innovative design elements to ensure major energy savings as well as environmentally friendly-sourcing practices.
• PUMA publishes first-ever Product Environmental Profit and Loss Analysis identifying and comparing environmental impacts of more sustainable and conventional products across production and consumer life phases and announces that it will be launching a collection of shoes, apparel and accessories that are either biodegradable or recyclable when consumers return them to PUMA's Bring Me Back Program at the end of their lifecycles.
• Jochen Zeitz resigns from the Administrative Board of PUMA SE as of 30 November 2012; Jean-François Palus, Group Managing Director of Kering, is appointed new Chairman of the Administrative Board.
• PUMA announces that Franz Koch will step down from his position as CEO of PUMA. He remains CEO of PUMA until the end of March 2013, and works in close collaboration with the new Chairman of the Administrative Board of PUMA SE, Jean-François Palus.
• PUMA is granted all trademark rights in Spain in accordance with the decision of the arbitration panel, which allows PUMA to unite all of its Spanish PUMA trademarks.
• With the PUMA InCycle collection, coming into stores in Spring/ Summer 2013, PUMA takes a first step in addressing the environmental footprint of its consumers' disposal. All products of the PUMA InCycle collection are Cradle-to-Cradle Basic certifiedCM, being the first collection of footwear, apparel and accessories to carry this certification, which guarantees an improved consumer quality that delivers both economic and ecological benefits.
• April 18th, 2013: The Administrative Board of PUMA SE appoints Björn Gulden (47) as new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective 1 July 2013. Björn Gulden brings to PUMA an extensive international experience of nearly 20 years in the sporting goods and footwear industry, where he held a variety of management positions.
1930s:Jesse Owens (100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, 4X100 meter relay)
1950s:Herbert Burdenski (football), Josef Barthel (1500 meters), Horst Eckel (football), Werner Liebrich (football), Heinz Fütterer (100 meters)
1960s:Armin Hary (100 meters), Pelé (football), Gaston Roelants (300 meter steeplechase), Mary Rand (long jump), Abebe Bikila (marathon), Eusébio de Silva Ferreira (football), Tommie Smith (200 meters), Lee Evans ((400 meters/ 4x400 meter relay), Willie Davenport (110 meter hurdles), Bob Seagren (pole vault), Jim Hines (100 meters), Joe Namath (American Football)
1970s:Mary Peters (pentathlon), John Akii-Bua (400 meter hurdles), Randy Williams (long jump), Klaus Wolfermann (javelin), Dwight Stones (high jump), Johan Cruijff (football), Guillermo Vilas (Tennis), Allan Simonsen (football), Mario Kempes (football), Renaldo Nehemiah (110 meter hurdles)
1980s:Marcus Allen (American Football), Bruno Conti (football), Diego Maradonna (football), Sydnee Maree (1500 meters), Evelyn Ashford (100 meter/ 4x100 meter relay), Martina Navratilova (Tennis), Boris Becker (Tennis)
1990s:Lothar Matthäus (football), Heike Drechsler (long jump), Merlene Ottey (100 meters, 200 meters), Linford Christie (100 meters), Colin Jackson (110 meter hurdles), Dieter Baumann (1500 meters), Velez Sarsfield (football), Jonathan Edwards (triple jump), Serena Williams (Tennis), Vince Carter (basketball), Oscar De La Hoya (boxing), Nicolas Anelka (football), Jamie Baulch (400 meters), Wilson Kipketer (800 meters), Christopher Kosgei (3000 meters steeplechase), Tsiamita Paraskevi (triple jump), Noah Ngeny (1000 meters).
2000-2010:Konstantinos Kenteris (200 meters), El Hadji Diouf (football), Travis Pastrana (motor cross), Robert Pires (football), Gianluigi Buffon (football), Jung Hwan Ahn (football), Chema Martinez (10,000 meters), Michael Schumacher (Formula 1), Mario Gomez (football), Marcell Jansen (football), Usain Bolt (100 meters, 4x100 meter relay, 200 meters), Sebastian Vettel (Formula 1), Samuel Eto'o (football), El Hadji Diouf (football), Rickie Fowler (Golf), Emmanuel Eboué (football).
2012-2013:Fernando Alonso (Formula 1), Felipe Massa (Formula 1), Nico Rosberg (Formula 1), Lewis Hamilton (Formula 1), Sergio Agüero (Football), Cesc Fàbregas (Foortball), Yaya Touré (Football), Radamel Falcao (Football), Marco Reus (Football), Marta (Football), Oliver Giroud (Football), Gaël Clichy (Football), Giorgio Chiellini (Football), Lexi Thompson (Golf), Ian Poulter (Golf), Jonas Blixt (Golf).
Outstanding performances of PUMA athletes and teams have strongly influenced international sports through innovative PUMA products and creative marketing initiatives for more than 60 years.
Milestones in PUMA's sports history were the development of the first football boot with screwin studs in 1952 by the company's founder Rudolf Dassler, the legendary "two-stripe" jersey of Johan Cruyff at the world championship in 1974, the PUMA contact lenses of Linford Christie in 1996, the skin-tight Catsuit tennis dress of Serena Williams at the US Open 2002, the revolutionary one-piece Cameroon football shirt in 2004, the Italian national team winning the Football World Cup in 2006, Ferrari with its seven-times world champion, most successful Formula 1 pilot and PUMA partner Michael Schumacher, who dominated the sports for years, the world records of sprint hero Usain Bolt as well as the Volvo Ocean Race, "the Everest of Sailing" that PUMA's eye-catching sailing yacht il mostro finished in second place in 2009.
Through creativity and innovative products PUMA has always set standards in sports and style. Partnerships with federations such as Jamaica, Italy and in Africa provided the brand with the opportunity to lead the way in creative and innovative global sports marketing. PUMA was not only able to strengthen its positioning as a sportlifestyle brand, but created a whole new market by establishing the segment sportlifestyle.
As early as in 1952, PUMA set the first milestone on the pitch by developing the "Super Atom", the first mass-produced football boot with screw-in studs. Eight players of German premier league club Hannover 96 sported the new mass-produced boots during the final of the German Premier League Championship in May 1954 and heralded a new era of football boot development - well before Germany's famous World Cup win in Bern in July that year.
A story to remember is the legendary "Two-Stripe Jersey" that the captain of the Dutch national team Johan Cruyff created at the World Cup 1974. The Dutch player refused to play in a threestripe shirt because he felt closely connected to his sponsor PUMA. He created a unique Dutch two-stripe jersey which debuted in the final of the World Cup in Munich.
When Jochen Zeitz took the helm in 1993, he launched a new brand strategy which turned PUMA into the most desirable sportlifestyle brand through successfully fusing influences from sports, lifestyle and fashion. The epitome of the new sportlifestyle segment was PUMA's cooperation with designer Jil Sander in 1998 when PUMA combined - as the first sports brand ever - sports and style. The newly introduced trend found its way onto the international catwalks and especially onto the football pitches where PUMA set new standards for sports fashion and established the sportlifestyle segment.
Legendary examples of PUMA's sports fashion were the coloured football boots at the World Cup in France in 1998 and the sleeveless jerseys, sported by the Cameroon national team at the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup in 2002. The football fashion was further revolutionized, when the Cameroon team played in one-piece jerseys for the first time ever at the African Cup of Nations in 2004. The one-piece kits caused a worldwide media stir and the international football federation FIFA sued PUMA, trying to ban the sensational jerseys.
PUMA's successful fusion of sports and style within the realm of football was crowned when the Italian national team won the World Cup in 2006: The "Squadra Azzurra" represents the perfect combination of athletic world class and fashionable flair, further extending PUMA's position as one of the three leading football brands.
As the partner of 13 African football federations, PUMA has not only been the leading sponsor in Africa for many years, but has also used the continent to launch its most innovative products. The joy of the game, aesthetics, passion and culture are African values that PUMA also stands for. The World Cup offers a unique platform for PUMA to demonstrate its long-term commitment to African football and the continent. While Africa has been carrying the stigma of conflicts and poverty in the global press, PUMA has always emphasized the positives of the prospects and uniqueness of the continent.
In January 2010, PUMA entered into a partnership with the Environment Programme of the United Nations (UNEP) to protect biodiversity. The joint 'Play for Life' campaign was launched to support projects in Africa and elsewhere. To fund this initiative, PUMA launched the Africa Unity Kit, the world's first 'continental football kit' designed to be worn by the 13 African football national teams that PUMA sponsors.
PUMA has always been successful in finding the right partners, who perfectly reflect and convey the image of the brand around the world. Sprint superstar Usain Bolt and the Jamaican track and field team perfectly embody that sports, fun and style have always been key elements in PUMA's brand strategy.
At the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing, Usain Bolt set a 100m world record of 9.69 seconds, smashing his own mark from May that year and sprinted 200m in the world record time of 19.30 seconds, beating Michael Johnson's 1996 record by two hundredths of a second. He won his third gold medal as Jamaica shattered the world record in the 4x100m relay in 37.10 seconds.
In close collaboration with Usain Bolt, PUMA developed the Theseus II, the ultimate running shoe. Running both the 100m and 200m, the Jamaican sprinter needed a versatile shoe that provided support for power, as well as firmness to hold his foot in place around the turn. PUMA produced a gold version of the shoe for Beijing, which helped power him through the greatest sprints of his life so far.
At the World Athletics Championships 2009 in Berlin, Usain Bolt wrote sports history again when he smashed the 100m and 200m world records. The PUMA Yaam sprint spike that propelled him to victory was developed by a team of PUMA designers and technicians who studied and measured Bolt's stride and foot form. The vibrant orange sprint spike, designed to contrast the Olympic Stadium's signature blue track and Usain's way of achieving outstanding performances, mixing sport and style, caused a global stir.
At sea, PUMA participated with an own boat in one of the world's toughest sailing races, the Volvo Ocean Race in 2008. As the first multi-category company, PUMA entered into sailing and combined high performance sports with cutting-edge technology, styling and adventure. The 11-men strong crew – the PUMA Ocean Racing Team – raced 10 legs and visited 10 countries in Africa, Asia, South and North America. During nine months, they covered 37,000 nautical miles (68,524 km) before finishing the race in second place in June 2009 in St. Petersburg.
Over 5 million people visited the Volvo Ocean Race stopover villages and witnessed PUMA's il mostro, PUMA City and PUMA's innovative market initiatives. PUMA used the 11 port destinations of the Race to activate complex onshore marketing strategies. Such activities set a new marketing benchmark in the growing sport of sailing. At the same time, while the sport of sailing is often perceived to be very exclusive, PUMA aimed to break down this misconception. PUMA's retail expertise manifested itself by providing a unique shopping experience in PUMA City, a mobile architecture at the stop-over ports. Retail expectations were exceeded, after sales in PUMA City on a single day in Boston topped daily sales in any PUMA store ever worldwide. PUMA City is an innovative, mobile container building and has accompanied the sailing crew during parts of the Race, being shipped to and assembled at the stop-over ports in Alicante and Boston to host celebrations, press events, entertainment and in-port race viewing.
In Motorsports, PUMA underpinned its excellent competence to combine top performance sports with lifestyle when it developed highly functional Formula 1 collections as the first sports brand ever. With the support of Ferrari and Michael Schumacher as well as a strong portfolio of other racing teams, PUMA successfully established Motorsports as a new segment within a short time and became the leading Formula 1 sponsor. Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel caused a sensation in 2008 when the 21-year old won the race in Monza, wearing golden PUMA shoes, and became the youngest Formula 1 champion in history.
On the international tennis courts, PUMA caused a stir in 2002, when the company dressed the top player Serena Williams in a skin-tight black "catsuit" at the US Open in New York and changed the fashion in a sport that had seen players traditionally dress in white. In 1998, PUMA took the then 16-year old American tennis player under contract and went together with her all the way from rank 42 to number one in the world tennis ranking list.
As a leading Sportlifestyle company we have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to contribute to a better world, now and for the generations to come. Our sustainability concept, PUMAVision, along with our 4Keys – Fair, Honest, Positive and Creative – guides us on our way to put this vision of a better world into practice./p>
Through our PUMAVision program PUMA.Safe we continuously strive to improve the social, working and environmental conditions both at our supplier factories around the world and within PUMA's own operations. And we develop and produce an increasing amount of more sustainable products to continue minimizing both our own and our consumers' environmental footprints.
We enhance, unleash and foster creativity within the artist world and film industry through PUMA.Creative as we as a design-driven company think that creativity is indispensible in this world and brings about a power to change things for the better.
PUMA.Peace is an initiative that uses an array of programs to foster a more peaceful world than the one we know today. PUMA.Peace makes sports equipment donations as we think that sports has the power to overcome hostile boundaries, bringing people together in peace. We also engage in educational and marketing campaigns to raise peace awareness.
However, while we do a lot, we know we are not perfect. We have achieved numerous milestones during the past years on our mission to become the most desirable and sustainable Sportlifestyle company in the world. But we are not there yet. We have a lot of work in front of us to make our supplier factories more decent places to work and to continue mitigating PUMA's environmental footprint, developing more sustainable products and engaging our consumers into our sustainability initiatives.
Sustainability Scorecard 2015
The PUMA Sustainability Scorecard 2015, which was announced in 2009 and has 2010 as a baseline year, highlights the key sustainability targets for PUMA. It not only highlights a 25 percent reduction target for main environmental key performance indicators such as CO2, water and waste by 2015, but also emphasizes our focus on environmental accounting through our Environmental Profit & Loss Account, a waste reduction through biodegradable and recyclable products, an ambitious target to have 50 percent of all international collections meet our PUMA Sustainability Index and, perhaps most importantly, 90 percent of our products will be delivered by supplier factories that achieved a good or very good result within our auditing program for social, labor and basic environmental standards.
This Business Code of Ethics sets out in writing PUMA's commitment to ethical and responsible individual and corporate behavior. It lists our most important principles and contains guidelines for the interaction with all of our stakeholders. With this community in mind, and in addition to our existing Supplier Code of Conduct, we have developed the following Code:
• PUMA respects and upholds the laws and legal requirements in all countries where it operates
• PUMA and its employees must not engage in any activities leading to conflicts of interest or unjustified personal benefits
• PUMA does not financially support any political parties
• PUMA encourages and supports its employees' participation in charitable work
• PUMA believes all people have the right to freedom from discrimination. PUMA maintains an equal opportunity hiring policy and expects its employees and partners in their daily work and actions to uphold ethical behavior and respect for human rights.
• PUMA does not tolerate any forms of violence or abuse and will seek opportunities for conflict resolution
• PUMA respects the individual right to freedom of religion
• PUMA respects consumer privacy and will not share personal data with third parties without explicit prior consent
• PUMA acknowledges its responsibility to protect stakeholders, consumers, and the environment from harm and works toward the concept of "sustainable development"
We at PUMA SE declare our strict adherence to the respect of Human Rights. As such, we share with our partners a commitment to high ethical standards and guarantee the following Code of Conduct:
• No employment of minors. For this purpose, we consider a minor as one who is below 15 years of age, or the minimum age mandated by the applicable law, or the age for completing compulsory education, whichever of the three is higher.
• A workplace that promotes the health and safety of the workers as well as the protection and preservation of the environment.
• A normal workweek according to local labor law, up to a maximum of 48 hours, with a limit of 12 extra/overtime hours, including one day off for every seven-day period, as well as overtime compensation policies that are in accordance with local law.
• Compensation that is respectful of basic needs and all benefits mandated by law. As a floor, payment of at least the minimum wage required by local law or the prevailing industry wage, whichever is higher.
• Respect and equality, regardless of race, creed, age, sex, social origin, political views, sexual orientation, or position.
• A workplace where there is dignity and respect, free from any form of forced labor, harassment, abuse or corporal punishment.
• Freedom of association and the right to join unions or other work or industry related associations as well as the right to collective bargaining.
PUMA already started to gear up for the Football World Cup in South Africa in 2010 – the first sport event of the magnitude of a Football World Cup on African soil. In the world of football, PUMA is synonymous with Africa. This is the result of over ten years of our continued investment to further boost the image of the African game.
To manifest our commitment to Africa, we have even gone as far as alternating our PUMA Number One Logo for the first time in the company's history, replacing the iconic PUMA cat with the African continent in advertising and in-store materials. The PUMA Africa logo will be exclusively used during the World Cup for print ads, instore materials and some product styles.
The new logo was launched with the African Cup of Nations in January, which was our warm up in the football year 2010. Ten PUMA teams out of a total of 16 participated in the tournament in Angola. The players of Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Togo, Tunisia, Mozambique, Algeria, Egypt, Ghana and Ivory Coast all sported the leaping cat on their jerseys. For the first time, PUMA was the Official Fan Supplier of the tournament and operated shopping areas outside the stadiums in Angola during the event. Egypt won the final of the African Cup of Nations for the third successive time today and seventh overall, beating PUMA-sponsored team Ghana 1-0.
Seven national PUMA teams out of a total of 32 qualified for the football highlight of the year, which will kick off on June 11th in Johannesburg. Current World Champion Italy, Cameroon, Algeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Switzerland and Uruguay all passed the qualification stage and will be wearing the new PUMA v1.10 playing kits.
PUMA has also partnered with artist Kehinde Wiley, the internationally acclaimed, half-Nigerian American-born painter, in order to create a series of four original artworks featuring Africa's most prominent football players, Samuel Eto'o, John Mensah and Emmanuel Eboué. The four commissioned portraits will be used to build a limited edition collection of apparel that will be sold during the 2010 World Cup.
Also taking PUMA forward to the World Cup was the launch of the new PUMA speed boot: the v1.10. This product was supported by the first in a series of LOVE = FOOTBALL creative executions.
This past year saw many large marketing initiatives in the Teamsport division. PUMA launched a new boot to its King line: the PUMA King XL Italia. This boot was accompanied by a limited edition kit, ball, and gloves. The PUMA King XL Italia Collection coincided with the 80th anniversary of Vittorio Pozzo's appointment as Italy's first full-time national coach – the only coach to have won two World Cup™ titles and the creator of the tactical il Metodo formation. At the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup™ in South Africa, Gli Azzurri wore this collection.
In 2009, PUMA became an official partner of the United States' Women's Professional Soccer League. As an official partner of WPS, PUMA is the supplier of the league uniforms, training gear, on-field gear and equipment, including the official WPS Match Ball and fanwear such as tees, replica jerseys and accessories.
The league's inaugural season was supported by PUMA's 'Recognize Awesome' campaign, featured in print, television, and web media. Also new to Teamsport marketing was the India Premier League (IPL) and the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) League, both highlighted by extensive campaigns throughout their respective countries.
In 2009, PUMA wrote again sport history – as the sponsor of the Jamaican Track & Field Team at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin. Three-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt broke the 100m world record with an amazing time of 9.58 seconds, when he blew away his own world record of 9.69 seconds set in last year's Olympic Games in Beijing. The PUMA athlete manifested his reputation of a sprint superstar when he smashed his 200 meter world record of last year to become the World Champion in 19.19 seconds. With the Jamaican team coming in first in the 4x100 relay in 42.06 seconds, Bolt finished an amazing race week by adding another gold medal and World Championship title to his track record.
The Theseus Pro sprint spike, dubbed the PUMA YAAM, propelled Bolt to victory. The shoe was developed by a team of PUMA designers and technicians who studied and measured his stride and foot form. With this information and ongoing track-testing, they created a custom-made sprint spike that best suited Usain's unique body kinetics.
Marketing support for Usain Bolt, Jamaica, and the PUMA Running category spanned the globe. For the World Championships, PUMA launched its 'Who Faster?' campaign: an in-store, online, guerilla marketing blitz which featured Bolt and Jamaican patois phrases relating to the concepts of 'fast' and 'fun.' WhoFaster.com was created, with pages that taught viewers to dance, run, and speak Jamaican. One notable tactic included the debut of 'Bolt Arms,' yellow foam arms posed in Bolt's infamous crossbow pose, which can be worn across one's back. Bolt himself wore Bolt Arms to the World Championships press conference, kicking off a worldwide craze and much press attention.
PUMA Running also sponsored smaller running events around the world. The PUMA Speed Trap was set up at various locations from Boston to Berlin, inviting people to test their speed against Bolt's near impossible 27 miles per hour.
"il mostro" – PUMA's eye-catching sailing yacht – and the PUMA Ocean Racing Crew finished their maiden Volvo Ocean Race, "the Everest of Sailing", in second place on 27 June 2009 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Volvo Ocean Race is a 37,000 nautical mile (68,524 km) around the world adventure and is one of the world's toughest sporting events.
PUMA's participation in the Volvo Ocean Race was the most innovative marketing campaign the company has ever launched and proved to be an extremely successful starting signal for our sailing category.
The journey became a showcase for our brand personality. From on board antics caught on film in our PUMA Ocean Racing webisode series to our skipper's regular blog. Again, we turned an often stuffy and exclusive sport into something that the world can relate to because we showed the fun side to the ocean slapping you in the face; the good things that come out of 11 men sharing one bathroom for nine months on a tiny boat.
During the race, over 5 million people visited the Volvo Ocean Race stopover villages and saw PUMA's il mostro, PUMA City, and our local market initiatives. Over 44,000 customers and PUMA employees were taken for a sailing tour on a PUMA yacht either before the start or in one of the stopover ports of the race. PUMA's eye-catching sailing yacht "il mostro", the innovative PUMA Sailing Collections, the innovative marketing initiatives launched at the numerous stop-over ports, PUMA City and the successful performance of the PUMA Ocean Racing Crew generated extensive media coverage that more than offset PUMA's investment in the Volvo Ocean Race.
PUMA used the 11 port destinations of the Race - Alicante, Cape Town, Cochin in India, Singapore, Qingdao in China, Rio de Janeiro, Boston, Galway in Ireland, Marstrand in Sweden, Stockholm and finally St. Petersburg - to activate complex onshore marketing strategies. For these efforts we won the European Sponsorship Award for the Best International Sponsor Campaign. Among these local marketing initiatives were Boston's PUMA City campaign, a media blitz that hit the city from train stations to radio waves. Sweden and Russia also saw extensive localized campaigns, speaking on local terms to this global event and audience.
For the 2011-2012 race, PUMA Ocean Racing has proudly partnered with BERG Propulsion, one of the world's leading designers and producers of controllable pitch propellers for commercial shipping. BERG Propulsion products are designed and engineered with the reduction of adverse environmental impact in mind, striving to bring fuel savings and environmental benefits to every product. This commitment to sustainability and strive for high performance makes them a perfect partner for PUMA. The race begins in October 2011 in Alicante, Spain and ends in Galway, Ireland in June 2012. The eight stopovers in between include: Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya (China), Auckland, Itajaí (Brazil), Miami, Lisbon and Lorient (France). The PUMA Ocean Racing team will once again be under the leadership of Skipper Ken Read. PUMA continues to produce and expand their line of sailing performance gear and remains the first Sportlifestyle company to participate in a venture of this kind. PUMA will also be the official supplier of all Volvo Ocean Race merchandise.
It has been a long but incredibly successful track - from the humble beginnings back in 1999 to the pole position of PUMA Motorsport today – one of the company's most triumphant sport performance categories. To celebrate the diamond anniversary, PUMA launched the PUMA Motorsport 10th Anniversary collection of apparel, footwear and accessories that blend on-track technical performance with off-track fashion appeal.
PUMA has been designing and creating footwear and apparel for the top Formula One racing drivers and most impressive MotoGP riders since the end of the last century. It all began when PUMA signed its first Formula One endorsement agreement with the Williams Team. Over the years, PUMA partnered with other key drivers and teams including Scuderia Ferrari, Red Bull Racing, BMW Sauber F1, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Benetton, Arrows, Prost, BAR-Honda, Renault F1, Sauber Petronas, Jordan Ford, Minardi F1, Panasonic Toyota and Jaguar Racing among others.
In 2009 PUMA enjoyed another memorable season when five out of the ten teams competing in the Formula One 2009 Championships were endorsed by PUMA – Scuderia Ferrari, BMW Sauber F1, ING Renault F1, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso. Red Bull Racing had its most successful season to date in Formula One, winning six races, securing 5 pole positions and finishing runner up in both the Constructors and the Drivers championship. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen won the Belgian GP and the team finished the season in 4th position. Ducati claimed four MotoGP race victories in 2009 and secured a second place in the Constructors Championship and 4th in the Driver standing.
Through relentless innovation and creativity, PUMA constantly improves the technological needs of the teams and drivers. These pure performance products have also transitioned into cult favourites in the lifestyle and fashion arenas.
Last year, we introduced the Speedcat 2.9 which continues PUMA's great tradition of Motorsport inspired Lifestyle footwear. Directly inspired by the original Speed Cat, but taking a flashier approach to the iconic motorsport shoe, PUMA revamped the hero kicking it up a notch with miles of style.
In 2010 we enjoyed this feeling, when the PUMA-supplied Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel made history in Abu Dhabi by becoming the youngest driver in the history of Formula 1 to be crowned World Champion. In one of the tightest finishes in the sport's history, Vettel held his nerve to claim the top spot and get the points he needed to secure the 2010 title. The Red Bull Racing driver was in imperious form as qualified in pole position, and fought off the challenges of his team mate Mark Webber and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, both PUMA supplied drivers, in addition to Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, who were all in contention for the title before the race in Abu Dhabi. 2010 was, without a doubt, one of PUMA's most successful Motorsport seasons. In 73% of all Formula 1 races PUMA supplied teams were the first to cross the finish line and in 89% of all races, PUMA teams started from the pole position.
PUMA's Golf category displayed an ongoing buzz, momentum and growth over the last year while the golf industry itself declined. Our marketing campaign "Look better. Feel better. Play better." combined with innovative product introductions in apparel and footwear further boosted PUMA's mark in a sport that had long been perceived as too traditional for cutting-edge fashion.
We introduced the innovative InvisiBonding technology in our Golf apparel line which eliminates traditional stitching by using a bonding process on the seams. In footwear we expanded our range of products that feature the Smart Quill Technology ensuring a lighter and more comfortable feel as well as a better traction.
These state-of-the-art performance products in the typical PUMA break-through and unconventional design propelled our PUMA athletes to memorable performances on the course. Geoff Ogilvy, ranked as high as No. 4 in the world in 2009, was a fixture on the top of the PGA Tour and European PGA Tour all season and claimed victories at the Mercedes Championship and the Accenture World Match Play Championship.
PUMA Golf continued to support its own new breed of player – one who demands the highest performance and comfort, but who also wants to make a more daring statement than your average, pleated, wrinkle-free khakis will allow. Such players included young and vibrant Anna Nordqvist, who won the first major tournament in PUMA's Golf history on the women's side with capturing the title at the McDonald's LPGA Championship. And finally, PUMA signed former No. 1 amateur in the world Rickie Fowler to a long-term contract to wear PUMA head to toe, paving the way for more exciting PUMA Golf moments to come.
To reinforce our global category positioning, PUMA partnered with the European Tour's season ending Race to Dubai tournament. For the events, PUMA introduced the Swing Crown GTX R2D and the C-Hopper R2D, two limited edition PUMA Golf shoes featuring the graphics of iconic buildings in cities of each country participating in the Race to Dubai Tournament – collectively known as The Race to Dubai skyline.
PUMA's Lifestyle category also warmed up in 2009 to be fully ready for the upcoming Football World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
The unique mix of Lifestyle and Football leading up to this major sport event on African soil was brought to life through PUMA's collaboration with the New York-based artist Kehinde Wiley. As one of the world's most sought-after artists, Wiley's work stands apart – depicting contemporary African American men in poses taken from the annals of art history, while incorporating a distinctive use of elaborate, graphic and colourful wallpaper-like backgrounds. A vibrant new line is inspired by his work and features West African textile prints. The lifestyle collection - that will launch in 2010 - comprises footwear, apparel and accessories and feature Wiley's bold, colourful patterns.
PUMA also paid tribute to its heritage in 2009, launching the PUMA Archive website and providing a place for consumers to find our latest creation and educate themselves on PUMA's history and the iconic ambassadors that helped us gain the notoriety we enjoy today. Styles like the PUMA Clyde, Suede, First Round, Roma and Easy Rider generated enormous coverage in both print and online, reconnecting these classic heritage styles with the audience that loves them.
PUMA also celebrated a Decade of Sport Fashion during the London Fashion Week in September. "Out of sports, out of fashion" was the concept behind our successful collaboration with Japanese fashion designer Yasuhiro Mihara. In Spring/Summer 2010 PUMA by Mihara celebrates its 10th Anniversary making it the longest standing sport-fashion collaboration to date. Throughout these 10 years, PUMA by Mihara has been a constant favourite for both sneaker freaks and fashionistas all over the world, exciting consumers each season with new and unexpected interpretations of the concept of sport-fashion.
In its Sports Fashion Category PUMA furthermore introduced the Urban Mobility Collection with creative direction by Hussein Chalayan. The collection explores the notion of 'Mobile Life' in modern cities, bridging fashion and performance by designing products that offer true solutions to stylish travel through the urban environment, launched for Spring /Summer 2010.
In 1948 – shortly after PUMA was set up – the company's founder Rudolf Dassler begins to develop a revolutionary design of a football boot that would ensure the best performance in any weather and on any pitch. The key development sees him fundamentally change the boot's design, replacing traditionally nailed in studs with ones that could be screwed on and off.
The result of the development is the PUMA "ATOM", the world's first screw-in boot which Dassler launches in 1948-49. In West Germany's first post-war match on November 22, 1950, Herbert Burdenski scores the winning goal against Switzerland wearing the ATOM boot.
During two-years of development Dassler works with football experts including former player and future world cup winning manager Sepp Herberger to improve the screw-in stud technology. In 1951, he begins testing the revolutionary innovation on top players from all over Germany. One year later, PUMA begins mass producing the new screw-in stud boot, the "SUPER ATOM". The boots are delivered to a host of top players and leading sports shops at the start of the 1952-53 German football season. Seven players from the premier league team FC Kaiserslautern wear the PUMA screw-in stud football boot. The team subsequently wins the league and is crowned champions on June 21, 1953. Among this team's key players are Horst Eckel and Werner Liebrich, whose performances earn them call ups to the German national team. PUMA mentions in its advertising campaign the use of the "SUPER ATOM" by Germany's national team elite.
The following season, PUMA launches an enhanced version of the boot. The new model bears the name "BRASIL" and also features the now proven screw-in stud. The cut of the boot is changed to reduce the weight. Eight Hannover 96 players wear the new Brazil boot. The side go on to clinch the German championship title after victory in the final game of the premier league season on May 23, 1954. After the final, PUMA launches a new advertising campaign that hails the success of the newly developed "BRASIL" using photos from the final showing Hannover players wearing the PUMA screw-in boots.
PUMA was therefore the first company to launch mass-produced screw-in stud boots, two years prior to Germany's famous 1954 World Cup win in Bern despite claims from the German national team supplier that it had invented the screw-in football boot itself for the 1954 World Cup.
It was not long before a new product innovation was launched. In 1958 the "WELTMEISTER" [WORLD CHAMPION] model was introduced with the newly developed nylon screw-in stud sole. Puma also used its unmistakable trademark curved stripes for the first time. The "WELTMEISTER" makes its debut in the 1958 world cup final between 17 year old Pele's Brazil and host nation Sweden. The boot is worn by players on both teams and is the only German-made football boot in the final.
The WELTMEISTER line is again enhanced to become the "PUMA KING" in 1968, which marks the beginning of a 40-year success story.
In 1960, PUMA notches another technological milestone in its football boot development with a new process called "vulcanization", whereby the sole and the shaft of the boot are bonded together during production.
The next key development follows ahead of the World Cup in Spain in 1982. The new model "TORERO" is equipped with a highly flexible DUOFLEX sole with two joint zones. In 1986, the "MEXICO FINALE" is launched as the first football boot with a removable locking system for the studs built into the sole.
In 1997, PUMA introduces the "CELLERATOR", the world's first cushioned football boot. Its enhanced successor is the PUMA football boot called "SHUDOH". Just in time for the 2002 World Cup in Japan/Korea, the new model carries the Japanese name "SHUDOH", which translates as Master of Football. Top international players such as Cameroon player Samuel Eto'o wear the "SHUDOH" during the 2002 World Cup.
The next product innovation from PUMA arrives in time for the 2006 World Cup: The "SPEED BOOT V1.06" is the world's lightest football boot, weighing barely 200g. Its technology gets players to the ball faster and gives players time leads of fractions of a second. The extremely thin synthetic ConTec material, its especially developed studs as well as the asymmetrical locking system ensure high speed, stability and the support properties of a leather boot – thereby guaranteeing optimal ball control. The new stud configuration as well as an innovative stud design improves the pressure distribution and the boot's grip. For the 2008 European Championship, PUMA introduces the successor model "v1.08" with a new upper boot material. The extra thin, lightweight ConTec textile material is provided with a second micro-fleece layer. This makes the lightweight boot more resistant and provides a feel for the ball, grip and high performance.
Since its founding, PUMA has always followed its own path in the world of football. Numerous stories from fashion innovation and an individual approach to sports are associated with the company's evolution and development.
One legendary story worth mentioning has to do with the 1974 World Cup in Germany. The Dutch national team played wearing its orange football shirt with the three-stripe trademark of another sports equipment maker on the sleeves. However, Johan Cruyff, the team's captain and star player, had an exclusive agreement with PUMA and felt closely tied to the company and brand. Cruyff refused to play in that shirt and had a special Dutch shirt produced. This version bore only two stripes. Cruyff's team members, the Kerkhof twins, also had an agreement with PUMA, and took Cruyff's lead. That's how the "Shirt with two stripes" also came to be worn in the following 1978 World Cup.
PUMA also shows its innovative power in organizing sporting events. In 1994, PUMA organizes a new football championship called the "PUMA Street Football Cup". The playing field measures only 14 m x 20 m. Each team is made up of three players, a goalie and a substitute. This new kind of event concept becomes an international success. Just two years later, 28 national teams participate in the second "PUMA Street Football Cup" championship held in London.
One highlight that underscores PUMA's innovation and individuality occurs during the 2002 World Cup in Japan/South Korea. The "indomitable lions" from the Cameroon national team play in the opening game against the Congo wearing an up-to-date, unique "sleeveless football shirt" produced by PUMA, which attracts a great deal of attention worldwide. However, the shirt does not meet FIFA conventions: "No sleeves, no shirt. No shirt, no game", is FIFA's ruling. In the subsequent games, the Cameroon team wear sleeve inserts, yet among football fans and fashion fans, the "Cameroon Sleeveless Shirt" sells like hot cakes.
With the development of a one-piece football shirt, PUMA ultimately revolutionizes football fashion. In its first group game in the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations, the Cameroon national team appears in the new PUMA one-piece shirt. It has a body-fitting form and feels like a second skin, making it difficult for the team's opponents to illegally grab onto and hold the shirt during play. The international football association FIFA wants to ban the use of the one-piece shirt during the course of the tournament. It penalizes Cameroon with a deduction of six points in the World Cup qualifying rounds and imposes a fine. With the payment of the fine and a campaign keenly watched around the world, PUMA continues to sponsor Cameroon and shows FIFA its claws. PUMA takes FIFA to court to fight the ban. The legal dispute with FIFA ends in an out-of-court settlement. The parties agree on a joint donation for a football development aid project in Cameroon.
This and many other examples from sports history show that PUMA has remained true to the course it set for itself in the world of football and that it is responsible for combining influences from sport, lifestyle and fashion with values such as individuality and uniqueness.
60 years of PUMA – 60 years of international football sponsorship
Since its founding, PUMA has been active as an international football sponsor and equipment supplier to players and teams. As early as 1950, players from the German national team wear PUMA boots in their first football game after the Second World War. For the 1958 World Cup held in Sweden, players from the Brazilian and Swedish teams play wearing football boots from PUMA. In the following World Cup in Chile in 1962, the Brazilian superstar Pelé wears PUMA football boots and leads the team to become the World Cup champions and the "Player of the Tournament". Four years later, the Portuguese player Eusébio is a top goal scorer and is also named "Player of the Tournament". He is the first to wear the predecessor of today's legendary "PUMA KING", which is later worn by international football stars like Diego Maradona during subsequent World Cup tournaments (see attached press release). Top international football players include French national player Robert Pires, who, in 2002, after one season with Arsenal, is named "Footballer of the Year" in England. In the same year, Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon signs an equipment agreement with PUMA. During the 2002 World Cup in Japan/Korea, PUMA player El Hadji Diouf is selected by FIFA to the "All Star Team" team of the World Cup. The Korean player Ahn Jung-hwan knocks Italy out of the competition with a "Golden Goal", thus securing the host country a spot in the semi-finals.
For the 2006 World Cup, PUMA renews its partnership with football legend Pelé, who was sponsored by PUMA during his active years as a player and now advertises for PUMA as its World Cup ambassador. "Over many years, I have developed a close relationship with the PUMA brand", Pelé said at the time. "Now I am happy to collaborate on various projects in the run-up to the World Cup, together with PUMA". About PUMA's qualities as an equipment supplier, Pelé said: "PUMA and football, it's like a big family. Everyone knows that PUMA and football are related to one another".
In addition to numerous individual players, PUMA has been successfully equipping and sponsoring teams for many years. Its first partner in 1950 is the team Spielvereinigung Fürth (current name: Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth), which becomes the German football champion three times in the years 1914, 1926 and 1929. In 1988 and 1993, the PUMA team SV Werder Bremen wins the German Championship and in 1994 the German Football Federation Cup. During the same year, the Argentine team and PUMA partner Velez Sarsfield wins the World Club Championship in Tokyo with a 2-0 victory over A.C. Milan. Its winning streak is still going strong even one year later. Real Saragossa wins the UEFA Cup Winner's Cup wearing the PUMA shirt. In 1995, the PUMA team Atlético Madrid comes first in the Spanish premier league and wins the Spanish League Cup. The Italian team S. S. Lazio Rom also scores a major victory in 1999 when it wins the UEFA Cup Winner's Cup and then, in the following year, winning the league in Italy, the League Cup and the Italy's Super Cup. PUMA has sponsored the Italian national team since 2002. In 2004, it introduces an innovative team shirt in collaboration with the designer and creative director of the ITALIA Collection, Neil Barrett.
The 2006 World Cup held in Germany is a high point of the decade-long string of successes for PUMA. As a leading sponsor and equipment supplier, PUMA supplies 12 of the 32 participating teams: Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Iran as well as the five African teams, Tunisia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Angola and Togo. PUMA thus achieves a brand presence in 56 percent of all games during the World Cup and is the most heavily represented brand compared to the competition. Moreover, for the first time in the company's history, a team sponsored by PUMA wins the World Cup Championship. Italy's Squadra Azzurra beats France 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out on July 9, 2006 in the World Cup final held in Berlin, becoming the World champions for the fourth time. In 2007, the PUMA team VfB Stuttgart wins the German Championship.
In its anniversary year of 2008, PUMA once again shows its strong position as a football equipment provider by having five teams represent it in the 2008 European Football Championship tournament. In addition to World Cup champions Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic as well as host countries Switzerland and Austria appear wearing the company's trademark cat on their shirts.
For many years, PUMA has also been a leading sports equipment supplier and sponsor for African football and has shown that its commitment to the African Continent is just as ambitious as the passion of Africans for football itself. In 1997, PUMA signs an equipment supply agreement with the Cameroon football association FECAFOOT and becomes the equipment supplier and sponsor for its national team. The Cameroon team wins the 2000 African Cup of Nations during a penalty shoot-out against Lagos. Six months later, the team wins the country's first-ever gold medal at the Olympic Summer Games in Sydney, Australia. PUMA supports the success of the Cameroon team with an advertising campaign for the 2002 World Cup, which focuses on the national team. During the same year, the team of "indomitable lions" once again wins the Africa Cup of Nations. The equipment supply agreement with PUMA is extended in 2006.
For the 2006 World Cup, PUMA begins a cooperation with the campaign UNITED FOR AFRICA. The goal of the cooperation is to use original advertising spots to draw attention to UNITED FOR AFRICA and to generate donations for 30 active aid organizations in Africa. PUMA creates a charity collection exclusively for this partnership. From the sales price of each collection item, PUMA donates an amount, transparently listed for the customer to see, to UNITED FOR AFRICA. The highlight of the cooperation is the UNITED FOR AFRICA streetcar, a concept developed by both partners. Equipped with special informational and interaction options, the streetcar drives through Berlin advertising for the campaign. Both in the streetcars as well as in the Berlin Café Moscow, PUMA's football headquarters for the World Cup, there are numerous events held with prominent artists and athletes.
In 2007, PUMA once again expands its portfolio as an equipment supplier and sponsor of African teams. It becomes partners with the Moroccan and Namibian national football associations. Furthermore, PUMA supports the global Peace One Day campaign with a new and exclusive football collection. The joint, long-term goal is to establish a day of cease-fire and freedom from violence worldwide. The UN General Assembly chooses September 21 as this International Day of Peace. The launch of the Peace One Day Collection is held in January 2008 during the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament.
2010: PUMA turns the Football Word Cup in South Africa into a home match
The year 2010 was marked by the Football World Cup in Africa, PUMA's home-away-from-home.
PUMA had a successful start into the World Cup year when Egypt's national team beats Ghana in an all-PUMA final at the Africa Cup in Angola, claiming the title for the third successive time and for the seventh time overall. PUMA wins the tournament for the sixth time in a row. The Sportlifestyle company is also the Official Fan Supplier of the tournament for the first time and gains outstanding brand visibility as the sponsor of 10 out of 16 teams.
PUMA has enjoyed more than a decade of close partnerships and collaborations with African football federations and sponsors 13 African teams, including the FIFA World Cup 2010 qualified teams of Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Algeria. 2006 World Champion Italy, as well as Uruguay and Switzerland, sported the leaping cat logo on South African pitches.
• PUMA signs Cameroon.
• PUMA signs Egypt
• PUMA signs Cameroon player, Samuel Eto'o
• Cameroon wins the African Cup of Nations.
• Samuel Eto'o is voted the Confederation of African Football's 'Young African Player of the Year'
• Cameroon wins Gold in the Olympic Games
• PUMA signs Tunisia
• Cameroon wins the African Cup of Nations in sleeveless shirts. The kits are subsequently banned by
FIFA prompting PUMA to add black sleeves to their jerseys
• PUMA signs Mozambique
• The Cameroon one-piece UniQT is introduced at the African Cup of Nations. Due to the UniQT kit, a 6
point deduction from Cameroon's 2006 World Cup Qualification is repealed by FIFA
• PUMA team Tunisia wins the Africa Cup of Nations, ahead of fellow participating PUMA teams
Cameroon and Egypt
• Samuel Eto'o is voted the Confederation of African Football's 'African Player of the Year'
• PUMA signs Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Togo
• PUMA enters into partnership with United for Africa, a campaign of over 30 aid organizations aiming
to improve living conditions in Africa
• Samuel Eto'o is voted the Confederation of African Football's 'African Player of the Year'
• PUMA signs Angola and Ghana
• PUMA team Egypt wins African Cup of Nations. Other PUMA teams participating: Angola, Cameroon,
Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia
• PUMA signs Ivory Coast player Emmanuel Eboué
• PUMA launches the v1.06 concept with an African inspired global marketing campaign.
• All African participants at the World Cup, Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo and Tunisia, are
sponsored by PUMA
• PUMA signs Morocco and Namibia
• PUMA begins a long-term partnership with Peace One Day, an organization that declares September
21st an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence
• PUMA is the leading supplier of the 2008 African Cup of Nations, outfitting nine of the sixteen teams
• Egypt wins the African Cup of Nations
• PUMA and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) announce a multi-year extension of their successful
partnership through the 2014 FIFA World Cup
• puma.peace and the global organization Peace One Day celebrate the "International Day of Peace" on
September 21st
• puma.peace and One Day One Goal facilitate over 400 peace games played in Africa and across the
• PUMA produces 150,000 pieces using African cotton to support local farmers
• PUMA introduces Fair Trade certified footballs to endorse a campaign focusing on the prevention of
juvenile delinquency in South Africa
• The launch of PUMA. Creative Mobility Award program sends over 220 artists and art professionals to
important African cultural events
• puma.creative launches a social network for African artists, Creative African Network. To learn more
visit www.creativeafricanetwork.com
• PUMA CEO Jochen Zeitz announces the Zeitz Foundation – an intercultural ecosphere safety
foundation with representation in Germany, the United States, the UK and Kenya
• PUMA and Peace One Day host "One Day One Goal" football matches in all 192 UN member states,
including 52 countries in Africa
• PUMA partners with Africa Express and awards 125 African musicians with Mobility Grants to
participate in the concert in Paris, France
• PUMA produces 1 million pieces using African cotton, supporting local farmers
• PUMA launches the v1.10 product line inspired by African football. It is supported by the Love =
Football campaign set in Africa and features African football stars such as Samuel Eto'o, Emmanuel
Eboué, John Mensah and Chinedou Obasi
• PUMA and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announce a strategic partnership to support the International Year of Biodiversity biodiversity. To support this global cause, PUMA unveils the revolutionary new Africa Unity Kit, the world's first 'continental football kit' designed to be worn by all African football national teams that PUMA sponsors
• PUMA team Egypt wins the Orange Africa Cup of Nations for the third successive time and the
seventh time overall. This is the sixth consecutive time that a PUMA team has won the tournament.
Ten of the 16 teams are being sponsored by PUMA.
• In South Africa, PUMA's home-away-from-home, PUMA sponsors seven of the teams that qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2010 in SA, including the African Teams Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Algeria, alongside Italy, Switzerland and Uruguay.
• PUMA enters into a new partnership with the South African Football Association, lasting beyond the next two FIFA World Cups. PUMA will provide the official playing kits for all associated South African teams, including the National 'A', Youth and Women's teams. PUMA is also SAFA's official partner in relation to replica kits, fanwear and other merchandise.