Puma (Germany)

Puma is the world's #3 sportswear manufacturer. It has a longstanding historic rivalry with the #2 manufacturer Adidas, not least because the two companies were founded by brothers Rudi and Adi Dassler, formerly business partners in Germany who fell out in the late 1940s and spent the rest of their lives as bitter competitors. Puma built up a strong following over the next three decades as one of the two leaders in sporting shoes and apparel but was unprepared for the dramatic changes in the sportswear market which resulted from Nike's spectacular growth in the 1980s. By 1990 Puma was struggling on the brink of bankruptcy. The company was rejuvenated from 1993 onwards by a youthful new management team led by CEO Jochen Zeitz. He continued to build the profile and prestige of the brand as it passed through a succession of different owners over the following decade, until becoming a subsidiary of French fashion and retail group PPR, also the owner of Gucci. Puma has made up for its lack of scale with a small collection of carefully selected endorsement partnerships, which have delivered high profile at comparatively low cost. By far the most successful of these in 2008 was its sponsorship of sprinter Usain Bolt, one of the main stars of the Beijing Olympics.

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Puma website

Tretorn	Brandon Company
Hussein Chalayan	Puma by Mihara Yasohiro
Puma+Alexander McQueen	Puma Sergio Rossi
Puma Black Label	Rudof Dassler Schufabrik

PPR

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