PUMA Launches African Artist Inspired Kits

PUMA Football stars Samuel Eto’o, Asamoah Gyan and Yaya Touré were at the launch as the new kits for Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory coast, Algeria, Namibia, Senegal, Togo, Gabon, Burkino Faso and PUMAs latest partner South Africa were officially unveiled.

The collaboration will be supported by a month-long exhibition at the Design Museum in London entitled ‘Interpretations of Africa: Football, Art and Design’. It explores the response of the 10 artists from the Creative African Network, to a demanding brief, focused on Africa’s unique visual identity and culture.

The exhibition will feature original artwork and sketches alongside development work and the resulting final football kits created by the artists involved, including Barthélémy Toguo of Cameroon, Zineb Zedira of Algeria and Godfried Donkor of Ghana who have all become renowned in the art world for their emotive and captivating work.

We have a rich history within African Football, such as the 2010 Unity kit for the World Cup, the infamous Cameroon Unikit, unveiled in 2004 and last year’s collaboration with Kehinde Wiley, who produced a series of portraits of African players and special African inspired lifestyle products.

Franz Koch, CEO of PUMA commented, “PUMA has been at the forefront of integrating the two disparate worlds of sport and art, and today through a celebration of football, art, colour and culture, we have shown to the world how these two spheres can be uniquely combined.”

Terence Parris, Head of Teamsports Marketing at PUMA SE comments, “African football continues to play a huge part in our global sports marketing strategy. Over the past decade, we have progressively developed our relationship with Africa, investing in grassroots projects, player relationships and African federation partnerships. The emotion and passion of African football perfectly complements our brand ethos and we are uniquely privileged to be in a position to work with a continent with such rich culture and heritage. These football kits embody all of our brand values.”

You can let us know your thoughts on the new African football kits on Facebook, Tweeting us or by using the #PUMAFootball hashtag on Twitter.