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pumaBrand History

The history of Puma starts the same as Adidas, but takes a very different turn...

Rudolph (Rudi) and Adolf (Adi) Dassler worked together in the 1920’s to produce shoes under the ‘Dassler’ brand. Dassler shoes were worn during the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games earning Jesse Owens 4 Gold Medals. On top of that fellow wearers of Dassler shoes go on to win a total of 7 Gold and 5 Bronze medals and break 2 world records and 3 Olympic records.

No-one knows for sure what made the two brothers fall out. Several stories exist ranging from an affair between Adi and Rudi’s wife, Rudi stealing money from the family business or hurtful comments between the two during air-raids in their hometown of Herzogenaurach.

The fact that Adi continued running the family business whilst Rudi was shipped off to an American POW camp must have been the last straw, as when Rudi returned in 1948, he set-up his own company on the other side of the river, taking his loyal staff with him.

Puma was born, and with it released the ‘Puma Atom’, Puma’s first football shoe.

Rudi wanted to work on removable football studs, and was aided by national coach Sepp Herberger.

The first post-war goal was produced by Herbert Burdenski, wearing a pair of Puma’s shoes in the first football match after WWII.

1952 was a great year for Puma, resulting in Puma’s first Olympic Gold Medal, won by Josef Barthel running the 1500m in Helsinki, Finland.

The Super Atom was produced, and was worn for the first time by top players of the clubs including Horst Eckel and Werner Liebrich who due to their excellent performance, were to become part of the German National team.

Puma ‘Brasil’ with screw-in studs were developed and launched and helped Hannover win the German Championships 96 to 1 against FC Kaiserslautern.
In 1958, Puma’s shoes featuring the signature formstrip were worn for the first time at the World Cup in Sweden.

10 years later, Puma had helped athletes around the world to win:

Person/Country	Event	Year
Chile	World Cup	1962
Armin Harry	100m	1960
Gaston Roelants	3000m	1964
Mary Rand	Long Jump	1964
Abebi Bikila	Marathon	1964
Tommie Smith	200m	1968
Lee Evants	400m (in 4 x 400m)	1968
Willie Davenport	100m high hurdles	1968
Bob Seagren	Pole-vault	1968

To cap the year off, Jim Hines became the first man to complete the 100m sprint in less than 10 seconds.

The next 10 years saw equally impressive wins, records and goals and the development of S.P.A technology – sports shoes with higher heals to relieve strain on the Achilles tendon.

Armin A Dassler (Rudi’s son) invented the DuoFlex sole in 1982 and in 1985 Germany’s Boris Becker won Wimbledon wearing Puma shoes and playing with a Puma racket. He’s still the youngest and only unseeded player to win this event!

A year later, Maradona scores the famous ‘Hand of God’ goal which was later voted the ‘Goal of the Century’ by FIFA.

A few more ranges down the line, and we have Trinomic, Inspector (the Children’s shoe with a mid-sole window to see growth) and the high-tech Puma Disc system.

In 1993, “Puma’s Fantastic Four” (Heike Drechsler, Merlene Ottey, Linford Christie and Colin Jackson) win Gold medals at the Track and Field Championships in Stuttgart. Puma team Werder Bremen also win the German Football Championship.

The wins keep coming with Linford Christie setting 2 indoor sprint records for the 60m (6.47 seconds) and 200m (20.25 seconds) in 1995, Jonathan Edwards gets gold and sets a new world record for triple jump (18.29m).

After a year’s development, the Puma Cell Football shoe is released in 1997, and is the first to feature cushioning technology without a midsole.

In 2000, Puma launch Platinum their first range of Sport-Fashion wear, and in 2002 together with Serena Williams, Puma unveil the “2002 Serena Williams Tennis Collection”.

Serena goes on to win the French Open wearing a Puma sleeveless tennis dress, and she also wins the US Open wearing a black Puma catsuit.

In 2003, Puma and BMW Williams F1 Team sign a multi-year contract, and in 2004 they sign another multi-year contract with the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team – a year in which they also become the official supplier of racing shoes to Michael Schumacher.

Not content with conquering shoes and clothes for the land, the latest range of Puma Shoes, Apparel and Accessories have been designed with the ocean in mind.

October 11, 2008 saw Puma’s boat ‘Il Mostro’ taking part in the Volvo Ocean Race – a global race and one of the most demanding team sporting events in the world. Racing between 11 ports, 37,000 nautical miles over nine months.
Let’s just hope they get back safely to keep selling all that great gear!