Product development and design
Our product development and design process is a central component of our brand elevation strategy.
With our 75-year history as a sports brand, all PUMA products share a 100% sports DNA. While we develop performance products that can perform at the highest level of competition, we also incorporate our sports DNA into our Sportstyle range with a clear design language.
Sports culture, the influence of sports on fashion and culture beyond the stadiums, pitches and race tracks, also plays an important role in our designs. A good example of this is the terrace trend, which originated in the football stadiums of the 1980s, and the Speedcat, which was inspired by racing shoes in motorsport.
In our performance categories, we continuously bring innovations to the market with the aim of developing the fastest products for the fastest athletes. A good example of this is our NITROTM technology, which has emerged directly from our work with elite athletes and is recognised as one of the best foam technologies in the industry. NITROTM is at the heart of many of our performance products, not only in our running shoes, but also in our basketball and golf products.
We have also invested heavily in innovations for our performance apparel. One example of this is our extremely lightweight ULTRAWEAVE technology, which is already part of our football jerseys worn on the pitch and our running apparel. Our focus on innovation also extends to sustainability: As part of our RE:FIBRE programme, we were able to produce millions of replica jerseys with recycled polyester from textile waste in 2024.
In order to optimise our storytelling and benefit from the entire trend cycle, we want to position our various franchises as brands. In the case of our performance products, these include the Deviate, Velocity and ForeverRun running shoes and the FUTURE, ULTRA and KING football boots, as well as our Sportstyle franchises such as Speedcat, Palermo and Mostro.
In order to capture both global and regional trends, we have set up creation centres and design hubs in key markets such as the USA, Europe, China, India and Japan as part of our glocal strategy and are present in regionally relevant sports such as cricket, handball, rugby, Australian Rules Football (AFL) and netball. This organisational approach gives us the opportunity to combine the strength of a global brand with the agility of a local organisation.
