Quote

Puma is a brand deeply rooted in sporting lifestyle.

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.

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

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.

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.'

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.

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 importance of logo into today's fashion is un! be! Lievable!

When I was a kid, dressing right and looking good was a priority. As I grew up, I just wanted to stay that way, stick out a bit and have my own thing. That's where white belts and wearing some colors started. So signing with Puma was a great fit for me. I usually travel with nine pairs of golf shoes and 10 belts.

I don't think I could have tackled 'The Pura Principle' until now. It takes me about twenty years to come to term with any difficult period in my life, to get enough of a grasp on it to fictionalize it.