The past decade, the football industry has been dominated by Adidas and Nike. From cleats to kits, they dominated the game, the best example of this parity comes from El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Nike is the jersey manufacturer for Barcelona, so to combat this, Adidas signed Messi to be a brand ambassador and wear their cleats. Likewise, Adidas is the manufacturer for Real Madrid, and Nike signed Cristiano Ronaldo to be their brand ambassador and wear their cleats. So on either side of El Clasico, there would be the two biggest players in the world, wearing jerseys from one company and cleats from the other.
There was no one else that could really combat the might of these two companies, whether it be cleats or jerseys.
Messi and Ronaldo
Adidas Nemeziz Messi Edition
Nike Mercurial Superfly CR7 Signature
But recently, Nike and Adidas have been met in their fight for the top by an old foe. Puma, who had been dormant for some time, has recently risen from the depths to claim some of the most popular athletes to be their brand ambassadors. Some of the top names in this list include Sergio Aguero, all-time top scorer for Manchester City, Antoine Griezmann, a star for Atletico Madrid and World Cup Winner with France, Marco Reus, the spiritual heart and captain for Borussia Dortmund, and Luis Suarez, Barcelona's top striker.
They sell 2 different types of cleats, both distinctively marketed for attacking players. The first is the Puma Future's, which are marketed to be the speed/agility boot, designed for wingers like Marco Reus or playmakers like Antoine Griezmann. Alongside the Futures, Puma also has produced the Puma One's. "One what?" you may ask, who knows... But the One's are marketed for high scoring Strikers, like World Cup Silver Boot winner Romelu Lukaku.
Griezmann with his Signature "Grizi" Puma Future 17.1's
Marco Reus with the Puma Future 17.1's
Romelu Lukaku wearing the Puma One 1's at the World Cup
As well as signature edition boots for players, Puma has expanded their community outreach to Copenhagen based company, Unisport, as they collaborated for a brand "City" pack.
This not only expands their brand through good relations with their distributors but also help expand their brand to the consumer, who enjoy limited edition cleats, as well as Copenhagen citizens, who would want to wear a cleat that represents their city and makes them inclined to buy Puma products in the future.
Unisport Host Jay Mike holding Puma One's he helped design
Puma Future 18.1's "City" edition
As well as big name cleat sponsors, Puma also manufactures kits for a good handful of major, worldwide teams. This list includes English side Arsenal, Italian side AC Milan, French Side Bordeaux, Mexican side Monterrey, and Japanese side Osaka. These teams are all championship winning teams with massive fanbases.
Arsenal's 18/19 Puma Jerseys
Milan's 18/19 Puma away Jerseys
All of these positive moves have boosted Puma's stock by nearly 100 points over the last year as well as brought them back into the limelight for the European footballing community.
