Puma

Puma was born of one of the most famous family feuds in business. Rudolf Dassler and his younger brother Adi had run the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, since 1924, but after the Second World War their relationship collapsed. In 1948 Rudolf founded his own company on the other side of the town's river, first registering it as Ruda, from his name, before renaming it Puma. Adi's company became adidas. The rivalry split the town, its football clubs and even its pubs.

Rudolf's company made its mark in football. The Super Atom boot, with screw-in studs, was developed with input from the West German national coach Sepp Herberger, and several members of the West German team wore Puma in the first international match after the war. Puma was also the shoe of sprinters: Armin Hary in 1960, Jim Hines and Tommie Smith in 1968, and decades later Usain Bolt. At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists on the podium in their Puma Suedes, making the shoe a symbol of protest. A few months before the 1970 World Cup, Rudolf's son Armin and his cousin Horst Dassler agreed a "Pelé Pact" not to sign the Brazilian, which Puma promptly broke. The Clyde of 1973, a basketball shoe based on the Suede and named for the New York Knicks player Walt Frazier, carried the brand into street culture.

Rudolf Dassler died in 1974. Puma became a public company in 1986 but struggled for years, until Jochen Zeitz, appointed chief executive in 1993, steered it into fashion and lifestyle, collaborating with designers and pioneering the crossover between sport and street. In 2007 the French group PPR, later Kering, took control. Bjørn Gulden, a former footballer, became chief executive in 2013 and revived the brand through athlete and celebrity partnerships, including Rihanna, named creative director of its womenswear in December 2014, whose Fenty Puma collaboration and Creeper shoe were among the biggest hits of the decade. Kering distributed most of its shares to its own investors in 2018, leaving the Pinault family's holding company Artémis as the largest shareholder.

The 2020s have been harder. Gulden left for adidas, and his successor Arne Freundt stepped down in 2025, replaced by Arthur Hoeld, a former adidas executive, who began a restructuring. In January 2026 the Chinese sportswear group Anta Sports agreed to buy Artémis's 29 per cent stake, completed in October, saying it did not plan a full takeover. Nearly eighty years after the brothers' split, Puma remains Herzogenaurach's other giant.