PUMA

PUMA SE, branded as PUMA, Cobra Golf and Dobotex, is a German multinational company that designs and manufactures athletic and casual footwear, apparel and accessories, headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany. The company was founded in 1948 by Rudolf Dassler. In 1924, Rudolf and his brother Adolf Dassler had jointly formed the company Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik. The relationship between the two brothers deteriorated until the two agreed to split in 1948, forming two separate entities, Adidas and PUMA. Both companies are currently based in Herzogenaurach, Germany. PUMA has been a public company since 1986, listed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Since 2007 PUMA has been part of French group Kering (formerly known as Pinault-Printemps-Redoute or PPR). Since 1 July 2013, the company has been led by former football professional Bjørn Gulden (CEO). As of 2016, PUMA SE employs more than 10,000 people worldwide and distributes its products in more than 120 countries. Following the split from his brother, Rudolf Dassler originally registered the new-established company as Ruda, but later changed the name to PUMA. PUMA's earliest logo consisted of a square and beast jumping through a D, which was registered, along with the company's name, in 1948. PUMA's shoe and clothing designs feature the PUMA logo and the distinctive "Formstrip" which was introduced in 1958.

SPONSORSHIP

PUMA offers products for Football, Running, Training and Fitness, Golf, Motorsports and LIfestyle. In the past, it sponsored a number of legendary athletes, including Pelé, Eusébio, Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona, Clyde Frazier, Lothar Matthäus, Boris Becker, Martina Navratilova, Linford Christie, Colin Jackson, Heike Drechsler and Michael Schumacher among others. Currently, international footballers Antoine Griezmann, Olivier Giroud, Gianluigi Buffon and Marco Reus are sporting PUMA football boots. It also has the world’s fastest man and Jamaican track athlete Usain Bolt under contract. In terms of football clubs, PUMA sponsors FC Krasnodar, Arsenal FC, Borussia Dortmund and Leicester City F.C. National football teams Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Uruguay and Olympic Handball Champion Denmark are also endorsed. In Track & Field, PUMA sponsors the Jamaican, Cuban, and Barbados Athletic Associations. In order to support its women’s business, PUMA endorses fashion icons Rihanna and Kylie Jenner. In December 2014, Rihanna was also named Creative Director, overseeing direction of the womenswear line in December 2014.

HISTORY

Christoph von Wilhelm Dassler was a worker in a shoe factory, while his wife Pauline ran a small laundry in the Franconian town of Herzogenaurach, 20 km (12.4 mi) from the city of Nuremberg. After leaving school their son, Rudolf Dassler, joined his father at the shoe factory. When he returned from fighting in World War I, Rudolf was trained as a salesman at a porcelain factory, and later in a leather trading business in Nuremberg. In 1924, Rudolf and his younger brother, Adolf, nicknamed "Adi", founded a shoe factory. They named the new business "Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik" (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) which was the only business at the time that manufactured sports shoes. The pair started their venture in their mother's laundry. At the time, electricity supplies in the town were unreliable, and the brothers sometimes had to use pedal power from a stationary bicycle to run their equipment. In 1927, they moved into a separate building. The brothers drove from Bavaria to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin with a suitcase full of spikes and persuaded United States sprinter Jesse Owens to use them, the first sponsorship for an African American. Owens won four gold medals. Business boomed; the Dasslers were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes annually before World War II. Both brothers joined the Nazi Party, but Rudolf was slightly closer to the party. A growing rift between the brothers reached a breaking point during a 1943 Allied bomb attack. Adi and his wife climbed into a bomb shelter that Rudolf and his family were already in. "Here are the bloody bastards again," Adi remarked, apparently referring to the Allied war planes, but Rudolf, due to his apparent insecurity, was convinced his brother meant him and his family. When Rudolf was later picked up by American soldiers and accused of being a member of the Waffen SS, he was convinced that his brother had turned him in.