By: Erin Irish
Puma is a German multinational corporation founded in 1948 in Bavaria by Rudolf Dassler. It designs and manufactures casual and athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories. Rudolf Dassler’s brother, Adolf, is the founder of Adidas. The company is based in Germany, but distributes its products in more than 120 countries. Puma has been a public company since 1986. Since 2007 it has been part of the French group Kering. At the end of 2015, the company was said to be worth 2.620 billion Euros.
Puma supplies products for many different sports. It is a major supplier for soccer, running, training and fitness, golf, motorsports, and lifestyle. Some of the most famous athletes have been sponsored by Puma, including but not limited to Pele, Diego Maradona, Clyde Frazier, Boris Becker, Martina Navratilova, and Rudi Voller. The company currently sponsors Arsenal FC, Borussia Dortmund, and Sydney FC, along with the national soccer teams for Italy, Switzerland, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Austria, and Uruguay. It also sponsors the Danish Olympic Handball team, and the Jamaican, Cuban, and Barbados athletic associations for track and field. It has the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, under contract. It has also endorsed fashion icons Rhianna and Kylie Jenner to promote its women’s fashion line. Rhianna was named the Creative Director, overseeing womenswear in December of 2014.