Bolt, PUMA a perfect pair

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

Christian Maximilian Voigt, PUMA's head of global sports marketing and sports law, believes that the German sports goods manufacturer is extremely lucky to have a talent such as Usain Bolt among their ranks and reiterated the company's satisfaction with the perfect partnership with Jamaican athletics.

Voigt, whose company has also shown over the years, despite competing with bigger global brands such as Adidas and Nike, that it certainly knows how to pick a diamond out of the rough, also shared his beliefs about the most important factors to be considered when shopping around for talent.

PUMA is considered as the third largest global shoe company, but the 87-year-old multinational conglomerate boasts some of the most recognisable names in the sporting annals.

The likes of football legends Pele, Diego Maradona, Lothar MatthSus, tennis star Boris Becker and legendary Jamaican athlete Merlene Ottey, to name a few, have all donned PUMA garb throughout their respective careers. Recent successes include the exploits of the Italian World Cup-winning team, exciting golfer Rickie Fowler, Samuel Eto'o and, of course, sprinting great Bolt.

Delightful partnership

However, Voigt, who was in the island for the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office seminar on sport and intellectual property, while making reference to the company's track record of sport stars, expressed delight with their partnership with Bolt and the Jamaican team.

"We were lucky in the sense that you can't expect that when you sign a contract with an athlete that they will develop into such a star as Usain (Bolt) has, and also him being such a personality that fits a brand such as ours and is so enjoyable to watch. That is something that we could not plan; it's somewhat luck," Voigt said in reference to the 24-year-old World and Olympic 100m and 200m champion and world-record holder.

"Usain Bolt is certainly the brightest star, but that should not hide the fact that there are certainly a lot of others, really good ones, that we are also working with such as Jermaine Gonzales, for example, among others," he added.

"Jamaica is a very good brand fit for us at PUMA," Voigt noted. "There is something about this country; the music, Jamaicans are always having fun, and that's very much like PUMA. We are not the most serious of all the companies, we still want to be great in our results, but we try to have fun and it always seems like Jamaicans have a similar nature, and, of course, there is a long tradition in Jamaica for running, and so it fits in all aspects."

"That's why we aren't only involved at the high end with Usain (Bolt) for example, but we get really involved with the high schools and the national associations, and so it's a pretty big investment," he continued.

But what is it that pulled them to sign the then 15-year-old Bolt some nine years ago, and what is the major determining factor where brand ambassadors are concerned?

"It's partly in the demeanour of the athlete in preparing for his sport, how he acts afterwards, that will have to fit with our image. With these world stars, it's partly luck also because you cannot foresee how a career will turn out because there are so many factors that determine how successful someone becomes," Voigt stated.

'We were lucky in the sense that you can't expect that when you sign a contract with an athlete that they will develop into such a star as Usain (Bolt).'