Usain Bolt - Puma nailed it on this one

So all the talk was on Nike and Adidas, even Li Ning, going into the games.
Well, now that Liu Xiang(Nike), dropped out of his event, the 110M hurdles, Asafa Powell (Nike) and Tyson Gay (Adidas) disappointed --- it's not too early for Puma to make the claim to the title - at least in T&F. Usain Bolt was signed to Puma in 2002. Great investment.


The link to the text article below. Also Puma's Bolt section on their website - there is an interactive game and Chasingbolt Youtube account.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b98c09e8-6c81-11dd-96dc-0000779fd18c.html

http://www.pumarunning.com/#EN/running/content/main/chasingBOLT

http://www.youtube.com/user/chasingBOLT

Bolt gives Puma headstart in sales

By Roger Blitz

Published: August 17 2008 20:33 | Last updated: August 17 2008 20:33

As Usain Bolt held up one of his gold-decked running shoes for the cameras after his historic 100m victory, the Jamaican sprinter struck a blow in another battle for supremacy.

Bolt’s domination of his rivals fulfilled his pre-race tag as favourite, but for Puma, the German sportswear manufacturer whose Theseus II spikes he was wearing, it was a triumph for an underdog.

Puma came to Beijing nowhere near rivals Nike and Adidas in terms of market value and sales, trailing in the number of Olympic athletes contracted to wear its apparel, and behind in the race for a share of the lucrative Chinese market.

But Puma does have Bolt, who goes for two more golds this week. The sight of the fastest man alive lapping up the crowd’s adulation in what may have been the most watched sporting moment of the most watched sporting event of the year gives the company the kind of marketing kick that will have had its rivals quietly fuming.

The 100m final was billed as a showdown between Bolt, his fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay, the US world champion, who failed to qualify for the race. But with Bolt signed to Puma, Powell with Nike and Gay with Adidas, it was more than just a running race. “It was a great allusion to the footwear wars,” says Larry Eder, who runs Running Network, an athletics website.

‘You don’t have to have the biggest number of athletes, you have to have the right ones’

The reasoning goes that the company with the most athletes on its books gets the most medals and therefore the better marketing opportunities. Not necessarily so, says Joerg Sobel, Puma’s general manager in the Asia Pacific region. “You don’t have to have the biggest number of athletes, you have to have the right ones.”

As a driver of sportswear sales, the Olympic 100m final is on a level above most other sporting events and, according to Mr Eder, there was “a huge battle” between Puma and Nike to sign up the current crop of talented Jamaican sprinters.