History of the PUMA brand
What is the history of the PUMA brand? It is very rich, and we will briefly introduce it to you in the following lines.
Brothers Rudolf and Adolf Dassler originally founded a company called "Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik" (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) in their hometown of Herzogenaurach, Germany. At that time, they had no idea that they were laying the foundation stone of the world metropolis of sports shoes and other sports equipment.
The brothers started production in their parents' house in 1919 and moved to their own factory in 1924. However, they did not have a single shoe factory in the city, many smaller factories were located throughout the city, but the majority of them did not manage to survive the 1950s and 1960s.
Within the first few years, both gained renown. At the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, most German athletes wore Dassler shoes, including track and field and 800 meters champion Lina Radke. In 1936, Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the Olympic Games in Berlin, running all the courses in Dassler track shoes. More medals soon followed - seven gold and five bronze medals, all for world-class athletes wearing Dassler shoes. The first records, two world and five Olympic records are also broken. All these successes were an international breakthrough for the company.
The Dassler brothers' company survived the Second World War period. However, in 1948 there was a conflict between them, and 28 years after the company was founded, the Dassler brothers parted ways, each going his own way. Rudolf Dassler moved to another building that belonged to their family. While Adolf Dassler registers his rival mark and its logo (three stripes) adidas.
Rudolf Dassler and his 14 employees rebuilt the family warehouse into a factory and founded his own company Schuhfabrik Rudolf Dassler (RUDA) - it was registered as a business in January 1948 and began operations a few months later on June 1, 1948. In December 1948, Rudolf Dassler renamed the company to PUMA Schuhfabrik Rudolf Dassler.
After the great success of their first PUMA ATOM football boots from 1950, they launched the PUMA SUPER ATOM model in 1952 - these attracted even more attention. Rudolf Dassler worked with experts such as the national team coach and former West German footballer Sepp Herberger. Together with him, he developed the world's first football boots with screw studs. For PUMA, this marks the beginning of a football legacy. PUMA tennis shoes were also worn by tennis player Guillermo Vilas during his worldwide winning streak - he still holds the record for the longest winning streak in tennis history at 46 matches without defeat. He won the French Open twice, the US Open and the Australian Open, making PUMA the supplier of top tennis players around the world. The company later develops in many sports and supplies products to the best athletes. As the first sports brand in the world, PUMA decided to combine sports and fashion through a collaboration with the German famous designer Jil Sander. Thanks to this, PUMA is also developing well in lifestyle products – opening up the sportlifestyle segment.
The PUMA SPEEDCAT model represents a long-term association with motorsport. The design of these shoes dates back to 1998 , when a fire-resistant version was created for Formula 1 drivers. Their innovative and elegant low-profile look, highlighted by the signature embroidered PUMA cat logo, quickly turned the SPEEDCAT into a fashion classic. PUMA entered the golf world in 2006 with its stylish clothing, footwear and accessories. The company has also collaborated with many well-known celebrities and artists in the past, such as singer Rihanna, model Cara Delevingne, global pop superstar Dua Lipa, Kylie Jenner and many others.
