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We decided that sports, lifestyle and fashion were three elements that could be mixed together to a very unique formula. That's what we did: make Puma a very sports-fashion brand when, at the times, everybody talked about sports and sports performance and functionality. We said, 'Well, it's about more.'

Some of the greatest stars in the history of football have been under contract with Puma.

I wanted Puma to regain strength with the existing logo rather than try to get rid of the past.

When I joined in 1990, as they say in the sport of sailing, Puma was in the doldrums. It was a difficult time, and Puma had gone to sleep.

Puma was all about function and not at all about design. The founder of the company always believed functionality and performance were the only ingredients that could make Puma successful and design never mattered.

Obviously, signing on with Puma right when I turned pro, it's been a great fit for me to show off my colorful lifestyle as far as where I grew up and how I grew up, growing up on a public driving range and growing up around action sports my whole life. Not exactly the normal road that guys take to get to the PGA Tour.

We believe that African football is among the best in the world and very much characterized the Puma brand mentality, which is to win.

I never felt that although we were based in Germany, Puma was and should be considered as a German brand. So we restructured it in a way that positioned us as a global brand, with English being the corporate language, rather than us looking at it from a German perspective.

The company was ready to close its doors; there was real financial distress. But on the other side, there was high brand awareness, but that was negative because Puma was perceived as low-priced. It had lost its cachet. It was a well-known brand without a presence.

The puma is, with the exception of some monkeys, the most playful animal in existence.