Arthur Hoeld, dressed from head to toe in Puma-Gear

It must have been the first time in a long time that Arthur Hoeld dared to show himself in public with the Puma logo on his chest. For more than 26 years, the German worked for the sports brand Adidas, at the end as Chief Sales Officer (CSO). And anyone who works for Adidas, who does not wear clothing from arch -rival Puma. Those are the (unwritten) rules.

But now Hoeld will become the new chairman of the brand with the jumping cat on 1 July. In the photo with the press release about the spicy switch, the 55-year-old German is dressed from head to toe in Puma-Gear.

Who is this man?

To start with his most important achievement: At Adidas, Hoeld was responsible for the « Originals » products. Hip retro clothing and shoes, which also include the popular Samba sneakers. The series would have delivered Adidas around 7 billion euros.

Puma will undoubtedly have looked at that success when it brought in Hoeld, because it has not been going well with the sports brand for a long time. The company has largely missed the hype surrounding retro sneakers, writes the Financial Times. Since 2022, PUMA’s stock price has fallen nearly 50 percent.

This week Puma and his competitors at the fair received a new blow, after the United States set high import duties on goods from Vietnam, Indonesia and China. The sports brands have their sneakers and clothing largely produced in these countries.

Okay, but why is the switch so spicy?

Because Adidas and Puma, founded by the ADI and Rudolf Dassler brothers, have been involved in a family champion for almost 75 years.

In 1924 the brothers founded the Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik in Herzogenaurach. With that they achieved quite a bit of success: for example, the American sprinter Jesse Owens ran the fastest of everyone at the Berlin Games in 1936 on Dassler shoes.

Shortly after the war, the brothers became brilliant. The precise reason has never been clarified, but it is certain that it will no longer worked out after 1948. ADI continued with his part of the company under the name Adidas; Rudi started his division as « Ruda », but later changed this to the sportier sounding Puma.

In the following years, the brothers constantly tried to lurk each other. It is notorious to be the betrayal of PUMA at the 1970 World Cup. The companies had agreed that they would not try to win football superster Pélé as an ambassador. But when the Brazilian started to choke his laces at the kick-off of the quarterfinals before the eye of millions of viewers, the characteristic curved Puma stripe fell on his feet.

Did it ever work out?

A friendly game of football between Adidas and Puma on the International Day of Peace in 2009 marked a detente, although the two still compete fiercely on the market for sportswear.

In addition, it must be said that Adidas is about thirteen times as large as PUMA in terms of market value. The gross profit was also almost three times as high in 2024 (12 billion against 4.2 billion, according to the annual figures). Puma will undoubtedly hope that the difference under Hoeld will finally become a bit smaller.

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