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Puma AG Rudolf Dassler Sport, officially branded as PUMA, is a major German multinational company that produces high-end athletic shoes, lifestyle footwear and other sportswear. Formed in 1924 as Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik by Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, relationships between the two brothers deteriorated until the two agreed to split in 1948, forming two separate entities, Adidas and Puma. Puma is currently based in Herzogenaurach, Germany.

The company is known for its football shoes and has sponsored acclaimed footballers, including Pelé, Eusébio, Johan Cruijff, Enzo Francescoli, Diego Maradona, Lothar Matthäus, Kenny Dalglish, Didier Deschamps and Gianluigi Buffon. Puma is also the sponsor of the Jamaican track athlete Usain Bolt. In the United States, the company is probably best known for the suede basketball shoe it introduced in 1968, which eventually bore the name of New York Knicks basketball star Walt "Clyde" Frazier, and for its endorsement partnership with Joe Namath.

Following the split from his brother, Rudolf Dassler originally registered the new-established company as Ruda, but later changed to Puma.[3]:31 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 designs feature the distinctive "Formstripe",[3]:33 with clothing and other products having the logo printed on them.

The company also offers lines shoes and sports clothing, designed by Lamine Kouyate, Amy Garbers and others. Since 1996 Puma has intensified its activities in the United States. Puma owns 25% of American brand sports clothing maker Logo Athletic, which is licensed by American professional basketball and association football leagues. Since 2007 Puma AG has been part of the French luxury group PPR.

History

Background

Christoph von Wilhelm Dassler was a worker in a shoe factory, while his wife Pauline ran a small laundry in the Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach, 20 km (12.4 mi) from the city of Nuremberg. Their son Rudolf Dassler, after leaving school, joined his father at the shoe factory, and was then called up to fight in World War I. Upon his return, Rudolf received a management position at a porcelain factory, and later in a leather wholesale business in Nuremberg.

After tiring of working for others and away from home, Rudolf returned to Herzogenaurach in 1924 to join his younger brother Adolf, nicknamed "Adi", who had founded his own shoe factory. They named the new business Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory). The pair started their venture in their mother's laundry, but 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.

By the 1936 Summer Olympics, Adi Dassler drove from Bavaria on one of the world's first motorways to the Olympic village with a suitcase full of spikes and persuaded United States sprinter Jesse Owens to use them, the first sponsorship for an African American. After Owens won four gold medals, his success cemented the good reputation of Dassler shoes among the world's most famous sportsmen. Letters from around the world landed on the brothers' desks, and the trainers of other national teams were all interested in their shoes. Business boomed and the Dasslers were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes annually before World War II.

Company split and creation of PUMA

Both brothers joined the Nazi Party, but Rudolf was slightly closer to the party. During the war, a growing rift between the pair reached a breaking point after an Allied bomb attack in 1943 when Adi and his wife climbed into a bomb shelter that Rudolf and his family were already in. "Here are the bloody bastards again," Adi said, apparently referring to the Allied war planes, but Rudolf was convinced his brother meant him and his family.:18 After 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.

In 1948, the brothers split their business. Rudolf left the high hill for the other side of the Aurach River to start his own company. It was from this split that Adolf started his own sportswear company with the name he formed using his nickname "Adi" and the first three letters of his last name "Das", to establish Adidas. Rudolf created a new firm that he called Ruda – from "Ru" in Rudolf and "Da" in Dassler. Rudolf's company would later change its name to Puma Schuhfabrik Rudolf Dassler in 1948.

The brothers earlier split led to a divided town. From 1948, the town was similar to a mini-Berlin. Brand loyalty became supreme for residents; several stores, bakeries and bars were unofficially known as either loyal to Rudolf's Puma, or to Adolf's Adidas. Even the town's two football clubs were also divided: ASV Herzogenaurach club supported the three stripes, while 1 FC Herzogenaurach endorsed Rudolf's footwear. When handymen were called to Rudolf's home, they would wear Adidas shoes deliberately so that when Rudolf would see their footwear, he would tell them to go to the basement and pick out a pair of free Puma shoes.The two brothers never reconciled, and although both are buried in the same cemetery, they are spaced apart as far as possible.

A pair of Puma sport-lifestyle shoes with the company's distinctive "Formstripe" design

Early years and rivalry with Adidas

Following the split, Puma and Adidas initiated a fierce and bitter rivalry with each other. The enmity split Herzogenaurach into two, leading to the nickname "the town of bent necks" – people looked down to see which shoes strangers wore.

In 1948, the first football match after World War II, several members of the West German national football team wore Puma boots, including the scorer of West Germany's first post-war goal, Herbert Burdenski. Four years later, at the 1952 Summer Olympics, 1500 metres runner Josy Barthel of Luxembourg won Puma's first Olympic gold in Helsinki, Finland.

At the 1960 Summer Olympics Puma paid German sprinter Armin Hary to wear Pumas in the 100 metres sprint final. Hary had worn Adidas before and asked Adolf for payment, but Adidas rejected this request. The German won gold in Pumas, but then laced up Adidas for the medals ceremony – to the shock of the two Dassler brothers. Hary hoped to cash in from both with the trick, but Adi was so enraged he banned the Olympic champion.[5]

The Pelé pact and subsequent affairs

A few months prior to the 1970 FIFA World Cup, Armin Dassler and his cousin, Horst Dassler, sealed an agreement which was dubbed "The Pelé pact". This agreement dictated that Pelé, a Brazilian attacking midfielder, would be out of bounds for both Adidas and Puma. However, Armin found the potential financial and marketing advantage of sponsoring the superstar irresistible. Pelé complied with a request by Puma's representative Hans Henningsen to increase the awareness and profile of the German sports shoe company after he received $120,000 to wear the Formstripes.[5] At the opening whistle of a 1970 World Cup finals match, Pelé stopped the referee with a last-second request to tie his shoelaces before kneeling down to give millions of television viewers a close-up of his Pumas.[3]:82 This greatly outraged Horst Dassler and future peace agreements were called off.

Two years later, during the 1972 Summer Olympics, Puma provided running shoes for the Uganda 400 metres hurdles champion, John Akii-Bua. After Akii-Bua was forced out of Uganda by its military government, Puma employed Ake Bua in Germany, and tried to help integrate him and his family in German society, but eventually Akii-Bua returned to Uganda.

In May 1989, Rudolf's sons Armin and Gerd Dassler agreed to sell their 72 percent stake in Puma, to Swiss business Cosa Liebermann SA.

Puma became a public company in 1986, and thereafter was listed on the Börse München and Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Present day

A Puma store in a shopping centre

Puma AG has approximately 9,204 employees and distributes its products in more than 80 countries.[when?] For the fiscal year 2003, the company had a revenue of €1.274 billion. Puma were the commercial sponsors for the 2002 anime series Hungry Heart: Wild Striker, with the jerseys and clothing sporting the Puma brand.

The company has been conducted by CEO and Chairman Jochen Zeitz since 1993. His contract has been extended ahead of schedule for four more years until 2012 in October 2007.

Japanese fashion guru Mihara Yasuhiro teamed up with Puma to create a high-end and high-concept line of sneakers.

Puma is the main producer of enthusiast driving shoes and race suits. They are the prime producer in both Formula One and NASCAR especially. They had also successfully won the rights to sponsor the 2006 FIFA World Cup champions, the Italian national football team, with them making and sponsoring the clothing worn by the team. Their partnership with Ferrari and BMW to make Puma-Ferrari and Puma-BMW shoes has also contributed to this success. On 15 March 2007, Puma launched its first new 2007/2008 line of uniforms for a club, and Brazilian football club Grêmio will be the first to use the laser sewn technology, similar to the one worn by Italy at the 2006 World Cup. Grêmio and other Brazilian clubs will be the first to use the technology because their season starts six months earlier than European clubs. Puma also makes baseball cleats, and Johnny Damon, the outfielder for the Detroit Tigers, is their spokesperson. He has his own cleat called the "DFR Metals".

The legendary KING

In 2008, Puma celebrated the 40th anniversary of the KING with a special anniversary edition,[12] the KING XL (XL is 40 in Roman Numerals), a tribute to Portuguese footballer Eusébio, who shot 42 goals with the legendary KING in 1968, winning the Golden Boot Award as Europe's leading scorer. The KING also was the favourite shoe of players like Pelé, Mario Kempes, Rudi Völler, Lothar Matthäus, Massimo Oddo and Diego Maradona. Puma have continued to release new versions of the King range, and released a version in 2009 to celebrate the history of Italian soccer, and in particular double World Cup winning coach Vittorio Pozzo, the Puma King XL Italia.

In 2010, the Puma King again heralded a football legend. This time Diego Maradona was paid tribute. To celebrate the Argentine's 50th birthday, Puma released the Puma King Diego Finale football boot. This edition was created in the colours of the La Albiceleste of the Argentina National football team.

Takeover by PPR

In February 2007, Puma reported that its profits had fallen by 26% to €32.8 million ($43 million; £22 million) during the final three months of 2006. Most of the profit decline was due to higher costs linked to its expansion, and sales actually rose by more than a third to €480.6 million.

In early April 2007, Puma's shares rose €29.25 per share, or about 10.2% higher, at €315.24 per share. On 10 April 2007, French retailer and owner of Gucci brand Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) announced that it had bought a 27% stake in Puma, clearing the way for a full takeover. The deal values Puma at €5.3 billion. PPR said that it would launch a "friendly" takeover for Puma, worth €330 a share, once the acquisition of the smaller stake was completed. The board of Puma welcomed the move, saying it was fair and in the firm's best interests. On 17 July 2007 PPR have 62.1 % of Puma stocks.

While PPR owns the majority of Puma's stock, Puma remains an independent company.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puma_AG