Overview
Rudolf Dassler founded his company PUMA in 1948 and at the same time, he registered the first PUMA logo picturing a puma jumping through a slim letter “D” (for Dassler). This logo is reliving a revival with the “Rudolf Dassler Schuhfabrik” collection; the designs focus on the heritage of the company that the strong and charismatic Rudolf Dassler founded nearly 60 years ago.
1948
Rudolf Dassler founds “PUMA Schuhfabrik Rudolf Dassler”.
Rudolf Dassler files the logo with the PUMA jumping through the capital D (for Dassler) at the patent office in Nuremberg.
Introduction of the PUMA ATOM, PUMA’s first football show.
1949
Rudolf Dassler has the idea of football boots with removable studs and begins working on their development and production.
1950
Continuation of the development of the football boot with exchangeable studs by Rudolf Dassler in cooperation with football experts such as Sepp Herberger (national coach).
In the first football match after World War II, several members of the West German national football team wear PUMA boots, including the scorer of West Germany’s first post-war goal, Herbert Burdenski.
1952
Josef Barthel of Luxembourg wins PUMA’s first Olympic Gold (1500m) in Helsinki, Finland.
Production of the “SUPER ATOM”.
The “SUPER ATOM” is worn for the first time by top players of the clubs Borussia Dortmund (10 players), Eintracht Frankfurt (1 player), VfB Stuttgart (9 players) as well as 1. FC Kaiserslautern (7 players). Among others, the first wearers of the SUPER ATOM are Horst Eckel and Werner Leibrich, who, due to their excellent performance in the field, advance into the German national team.
1954
In Yokohama, West Germany’s Heinz Futterer sets a new 100m world record wearing PUMA shoes.
In May, during the finals of the German championships, Hannover 96 wins against 1.FC Kaiserslautern in Hamburg and becomes German football champion. Eight out of the eleven champions wear the PUMA screw in studs boots “BRASIL”.
1958
In football, Swedish and Brazilian national team players, competing at the World Cup Sweden, wear PUMA shoes bearing PUMA’s signature Formstrip for the first time.
2003
PUMA re-launches Rudolf Dassler branded footwear collection in collaboration with Alexander van Slobbe, featuring iconic shoes such as the Sprint Logo
2007
PUMA launches 360 degree Rudolf Dassler branded collection including footwear, apparel and accessories.
Building on an idea taken from modern architecture, specifically van der Rohe’s utopian Honeycomb, to strip a building down to its bare structure. Angular shapes, optical illusions, reflection and transparency pursue the archeology of modernism. Playing with the notion of "work-in-progress", translated into a "clash of old & new". Cross-references on designs, going back to a Berlin of the 1920s, the collection expresses the exploration of "The Vintage That Never Was". With the specific seasonal theme of the reflection of structures and juxtaposition of man-made versus natural materials.
