PUMA AT 75
PUMA AT 75
AS PUMA MARKS ITS 75TH ANNIVERSARY, WE LOOK BACK AT THE BRAND’S RICH HISTORY, ITS SHAPING INFLUENCE ON OUR RUNNING WORLD AND ITS NEWLY FOCUSED RELEVANCE TODAY
MOSCOW, 2013: USAIN BOLT SPRINTING TO GLORY, LIT BY A FORK OF LIGHTNING ARCING THROUGH STORMY SKIES. MEXICO CITY, 1968: TOMMIE SMITH AND JOHN CARLOS, BLACK-GLOVED FISTS RAISED IN SILENT PROTEST DURING THE US ANTHEM AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES. BERLIN, 1936: JESSE OWENS’ FOUR OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS PUT LIE TO THE NAZI FANTASY OF A MASTER RACE.
These are some of the most iconic moments in running’s history. Step briefly outside of running, how about Diego Maradona in 1986, scoring the ‘Goal of the Century’ against England; or Pelé, in 1970, bending to tie his laces on his way to an unprecedented third World Cup victory?
What do all these moments have in common? Look closely and in each you’ll see the answer in the form of a small, distinctive logo. In each of these moments, all of these athletes were clad in Puma.
The brand celebrates its 75th birthday this year, and it’s an astonishing history, a roll call of some of the very greatest athletes to have graced a track (and, yes, a few well-known footballers, too). Yet it all started in the not particularly auspicious surroundings of a laundry room in a small Bavarian town during a post-war economic crisis.
In fact, Puma’s origin story reads like a set-up for a German version of Romeo And Juliet: two brothers, united by a common goal, embark on a big adventure, before falling out spectacularly and living on opposite sides of a divide, their tribes set in acrimony. Both become successful, but live entirely separate lives, before eventually being buried at different ends of the same graveyard. If we could throw in a son and a daughter falling secretly in love, the stories of Puma and Adidas would be a great Hollywood blockbuster.
Christoph and Pauline Dassler’s son, Rudolf, was born in Herzogenaurach in 1898, followed two years later by his brother Adolf (Adi). There was also an older brother, Fritz, and a younger sister, Marie, but as neither founded a global sporting behemoth, history has little to tell of their lives. Herzogenaurach is a small town, around 20km north-west of Nuremberg. For much of its history, its inhabitants worked in textile production, and Christoph was the last in a line of Dasslers working as weavers and dyers. Industrialisation brought the collapse of the local textile industry and, like many in the town, Christoph began to learn the skills of a cobbler.
By 1922, there were 112 shoemakers in the town, out of a population of 3,500. Meanwhile, Pauline set up a laundry business at the back of the house, where all four children worked. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the two elder boys were conscripted into the army with the younger Adi fo
