KEHINDE WILEY EXHIBITION IN CAPE TOWN
Internationally acclaimed artist, Kehinde Wiley, has partnered with PUMA to create four original works of art inspired by three of football’s most decorated players, Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon, John Mensah of Ghana and Emmanuel Eboué of Ivory Coast. Wiley painted three individual portraits of each player wearing the Africa Unity Kit, and then a fourth ‘Unity’ Portrait was painted with all three players together, symbolizing the united countries of Africa.
These individual portraits, measuring 5 feet by 6 feet and the ‘Unity’ portrait measuring 9 feet by 12 feet, were unveiled in Berlin in January 2010 and have been travelling as an exhibition beginning in Paris, and will finally end up in South Africa in June.
The Kehinde Wiley exhibition will be held at Studio One, 186 Bree Street, Cape Town, from 24 June – 3 July 2010. Viewing will be open to the public from 10am – 6pm daily. Join in celebrating Africa’s heritage and unity by coming to view this exclusive exhibition. For further information please contact Splash PR on 021 790 9911.
PUMA TO BECOME A CARBON NEUTRAL COMPANY IN 2010
Puma to offset CO2 Footprint of World Cup Teams’ Travels to and in South Africa.
PUMA will completely offset its own global CO2 emissions to become the first carbon neutral company within the sportlifestyle industry, PUMA announced on Thursday at ‘The Business for the Environment Summit’ (B4E) in Seoul. In addition, PUMA will offset emissions deriving from international travel of the PUMA-sponsored national football teams taking part in the Football World Cup this summer in South Africa.
PUMA announced today that it will be the first carbon neutral company within the sportslifestyle industry to completely offset its own global CO2 emissions. Speaking at the Business for the Environment Summit (B4E) in Seoul Korea, Jochen Zeitz, CEO of PUMA, also said that PUMA will offset the emissions for all their sponsored teams during their travels at the World Cup in response to the United Nations Environment Programmes petition.
This announcement comes on the eve of Earth Day 2010, and follows on from PUMA’s announcement early last week to launch an innovative solution to significantly reduce the amount of waste and CO2 emissions that traditional product packaging generates in the form of a ‘Clever Little Bag’.
GRAEME SMITH SIGNS VIRTUAL UMU JERSEY
South African cricket team captain Graeme Smith, signed the virtual signing pad at the adidas Concept Store in Canal Walk today. The in-store signing facility is an integral part of the Unite Mzansi Unite campaign aimed at uniting all South Africans behind Bafana Bafana and the 2010 FIFA World Cup ™. The campaign which was started last November, sees a giant replica of the Bafana jersey travelling the country in order to gain support for the national team and the World Cup.
This afternoon, it was Smith’s turn to show his support to the UMU campaign by adding his signature among those many thousands already collected on the giant jersey. “The adidas UMU campaign is a really incredible initiative to have this big jersey travelling throughout the country collecting signatures of support for our team and I’m glad to have added mine today,” said Smith after signing on the pad today.
“This is a way of adding my support behind Bafana Bafana as the kickoff of the World Cup draws near and it’s time all South Africans back the team.”
Consumers have been urged to follow in Smith’s footsteps to sign the virtual pad, which is an alternative way of signing the giant jersey if they missed out when the jersey was in their province. Once the consumer signs the electronic stylistic pad, their signature is saved and downloaded onto the adidas signature database. The consumers’ signature will then be scanned onto the giant Bafana Bafana jersey once the campaign has completed.
After signing, Smith performed a shirt swop with a customer whom he gave his Bafana Bafana jersey and took his t-shirt. This was an important symbolism that the adidas UMU campaign has tried to create – by uniting all South Africans behind Bafana Bafana irrespective of their status in society.
“The cricket team will be playing away in the West Indies during the 2010 FIFA World Cup ™ but I’ll make sure we watch as many matches as possible on television from there and I’m confident Aaron Mokoena and the boys will make South Africans proud and do well in the tournament here at home,” he added.
PUMA’S NEW PACKAGING AND DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
The world’s biggest brands are becoming more and more ‘earth conscious’. Nike’s World Cup jerseys are made from recycled materials and now Puma are on a puch to decrease their own ‘paw print’.
PUMA kicks off next Pivotal Phase of long-term 360 Sustainability Program by Implementing Eco-friendly Packaging System
PUMA’s mission to be the most desirable and sustainable Sportlifestyle company in the world. To achieve this they have introduced an innovative packaging and distribution system for PUMA products that will reduce the paper used for shoeboxes by 65% and carbon emissions by 10 tons per year — the remaining packaging materials used will be fully sustainable by 2015. PUMA partnered with designer Yves Béhar, of San Francisco based fuseproject, to rethink the way the millions of pairs of shoes that it sells each year are packaged — less packaging means fewer raw materials, less use of water and energy to produce, and less weight to ship and to be disposed of. Béhar designed a “Clever Little Bag” to replace the cardboard shoebox with a re-usable shoe bag, that protects each pair of shoes from damage from the point it leaves the factory until the consumer takes it home — thus generating savings on the production side due to less material used, reducing weight during transport and eliminating the need for extra plastic carrier bags. As a result of the 65% paper reduction through the “Clever Little Bag” concept PUMA will reduce water, energy and diesel consumption on the manufacturing level by more than 60% per year. In other words: approximately 8,500 tons less paper will be consumed, 20 million Megajoules of electricity saved, 1 million litres less of fuel oil used and 1 million litres of water saved. During transport 500,000 litres of diesel is saved and lastly, due to the replacement of traditional shopping bags with the lighter built-in bag the difference in weight can save up to 275 tons of plastic.
“I was excited to partner with PUMA and contribute to such a game changing project,” said Yves Béhar. “PUMA’s initiative to look closely at one of the most challenging issues facing the retail industry in regards to sustainability and environmental harm was inspirational. In changing the packaging and distribution life cycle from the ground up, we hope our new design and comprehensive solution encourages other retail companies to follow suit.”
PUMA’s apparel collections will be bagged using sustainable material, replacing traditional polyethylene bags. This means that 720 tons of polyethylene bags can be avoided per year, which equals a saving of 29 million plastic bags — enough to cover an area the size of 1000 football pitches. Furthermore, PUMA T-shirts will be folded one more time to reduce the packaging size and thus saving CO2 emissions and costs during transport.
By switching out current plastic and paper shopping bags in PUMA stores and replacing them with sustainable biodegradable bags the sportlifestyle company is looking to save another 192 tons of plastic and 293 tons of paper annually.
The roll out of the new packaging and distribution system is planned as of the second half of 2011.
ADIDAS GIVES BAFANA A WARM WELCOME IN GERMANY
Adidas have gone out of their way to ensure that the South African national football team – Bafana Bafana – have a good and comfortable stay while they spend three weeks for their training camp in Germany.
“The team will be staying at the Ramada Hotel, which is a stone’s throw from the state-of-the-art adidas training ground – the Adi Dassler Sports Platz. We have prepared a media week from the 19th to the 23rd of April 2010, where we will take journalists from around the world on a tour of the our facilities including the Walk of Fame, the Brand Centre and the world famous Scheinfeld factory,” says Zobuzwe Ngobese, the public relations manager at adidas South Africa.
The Bafana Bafana team are expected to travel in luxury Mercedes Buses, which are branded with SAFA, Adidas and the Jabulani ball – something that will make the South Africans easily recognizable in Germany.
The global sports manufacturing company is also expected to launch the ball that will be specifically used during the final of the World Cup next week. Danny Jordaan, Franz Backenbauer, Carlos Alberto Parreira and the Bafana Bafana squad are expected to attend this special Adidas event.
NIKE’S ELITE TRAINING IGNITES FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT II
Andile Jali and Moeneeb Josephs take time from their short return to the country, to attend the Nike Elite Training Programme II bringing inspiration to the most talented, aspiring young footballers
Following the success of the first Nike Elite Training programme earlier this year, Nike is currently hosting its second session with 125 young, aspiring footballers at Jeppe Boys High in Kensington.
The 3-day intense training workshop, which kicked off on Friday, is co-hosted with professional coaches and specialists who are training these young guns on improving the fundamentals of football, through a series of technical, mental, physical, tactical and life skills coaching. The drills and exercises, developed in conjunction with Barcelona and Juventus football clubs, and the Brasil federation, focus on control, accuracy and speed. The life skills coaching include fitness, nutrition and HIV/Aids awareness, with on-site voluntary testing and counseling.
“The set up of the Nike Elite Training programme is proving to be a serious step up in youth development. After attending the first programme earlier this year with some of these young players, I can see a definite change in their play. They are showing improved skills and determination,” said Moeneeb Josephs.
The first Elite Training programme kicked off with over 200 footballers registering for the 3-day event. However with Elite Training II, only 120 footballers were invited to register, as they proved to be highly skilled, competitive and determined to earn a top spot in a professional club, and even the national team, in time for 2014. These youngsters are aged between 16 and 19 years.
The core team of football coaches and specialists include: Shaun Bartlett, Linda Buthalezi, Roger de Sa, Harold Legodi, Fani Madida, Tebogo Moloi and Eric Tinkler, and professional fitness and life skills coach Elsa Storm.
PEPSI FOOTBALL ADVERT
Check out Pepsi’s new advert featuring some of football’s biggest names: Didier Drogba, Lionel Messi, Kaká, Frank Lampard, Andrei Arshavin and Thierry Henry.
Then go behind the scenes of this brilliant new advert:
HAT-TRICK FOR PUMA IN 2010 RED DOT DESIGN AWARDS
PUMA has once again demonstrated its place as a market leader in product design after being awarded the “Red Dot Award: Product Design 2010” for three of its football products. The PowerCat 1.10 football, PowerCat 1.10 iFG football boot and Italy home shirt all impressed the panel of expert international judges who made the decision after receiving more than 4,252 entries from 57 nations in the product design category.
The Red Dot Award: Product Design is one of the largest and most renowned design competitions worldwide and is an internationally recognised quality label for excellent design. The jury rated PUMA’s PowerCat 1.10 products against a number of key criteria including design quality, degree of innovation, longevity and ecological compatibility.
“These products are designed to help players compete for honours on the pitch, so it’s great that they’ve been recognised for excellence off it too,” said Filip Trulsson, Senior Manager, International Teamsport Business Unit at PUMA. “This is a great acclaim to the superb efforts across design, development and product line management, and we’re delighted.”
The PowerCat collection was introduced in February 2010, ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. This year, when the world sets its sights on South Africa, PUMA will have enjoyed more than a decade of close partnership and collaboration with African football federations, currently being the official supplier of no less than twelve African National Teams, including Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Algeria and Ghana – all of which are participating in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Other PUMA teams participating in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa includes reigning champions Italy along with Uruguay and Switzerland.
PowerCat 1.10 Footwear
The PowerCat 1.10 Boot uses PUMA 3D Power Shooting Technology which delivers unique rebound properties. The Springtech foam in the shark-like gills on the side of the boot are engineered to enhance every shot by putting extra power behind the ball as it catapults off the shoe. This means the boot intentionally does not absorb the typical amount of energy upon impact with the ball, allowing more power to be released with every shot.
The kicking area is made of a soft, thin leather and a synthetic microfiber around the quarter area, keeping the boot lightweight and easy to perform in. The bladed studs are configured to ensure smooth ground penetration and pressure distribution as well as maximum traction and maneuverability.
PowerCat 1.10 Ball
The PowerCat 1.10 Ball is the latest innovation from PUMA‘s award winning design and development Equipment team. The ball has been in testing for the past six months with Sheffield University, as well as three select top division teams in Europe. The ball excels in flight characteristics, shape and anti-absorption properties, as well as the all-important ‘touch and feel’ experience.
The Italy Home Shirt
Staying true to tradition, the colors of the home kit is Italy’s classic azzure blue with white details. The shirt features a unique body fit and ‘battle skin’ graphic, designed only for the Italy team to wear during the World Cup.
The unique star-shaped collar on the shirt pays homage to Italy’s four World Cup titles as do the four stars on the official FIGC logo on the left chest. A leaping PUMA Cat logo on the right chest is prominently displayed. The design of the jersey reflects PUMA’s sportlifestyle positioning and the dynamic and modern character of the Azzuri. The new Italy kit puts emphasis on courage, engineered performance features and a distinct articulation of raw football power.
The POWER technology in each jersey was constructed using 3D Motion Analysis, a scientific technique that captures and quantifies human movement. This movement data is incorporated into the design of the jersey to ensure each player uses minimal force and energy with every upper body movement. The jersey also uses an engineered mesh, or ‘battle skin’, that enhances breathability, giving players more comfort and freedom of movement. The collar and arms feature power cutlines, giving the jersey a striking look emphasizing the strength of the chest and arms.
The Red Dot Award: Product Design was presented to PUMA at a ceremony in Essen, Germany on March 2nd, 2010. All winners of the award can use the Red Dot logo on packaging and marketing materials. The award-winning products are put on display before an international public in the Red Dot design museum on the premises of the ‘Zeche Zollverein’ World Cultural Heritage Site in Essen, Germany.
DID TORRES DIG HIS (LIVERPOOL’S) OWN GRAVE? THE HOT HEAD VS THE COOL HEAD
There are very few match ups in football that are played with such passion, intensity and fire as the Liverpool v Manchester United derby. Last Saturday was the 21st of March 2010 and Manchester United played host to their Merseyside neighbours at Old Trafford. Liverpool have come away with three wins out of their last three meetings with Sir Alex Ferguson’s United. However Liverpool’s frustration has been growing over the years as they have watched United (under Sir Alex), catch, equal and now possibly even surpass their record number of League titles. 18 is the number they now find themselves tied on and that certainly won’t be improved upon by Liverpool this season. United, on the other hand have a great chance of becoming the all time leading title winning club in England. Liverpool are stuck in a battle (an uphill one) to secure a place in the Champions League next season – something they will need to do in order to retain their service of stars such as Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres. Both players are winners. They want to win. No. They need to win. Losing is not a disappointment; it is a disease they avoid at any cost. All this came to a climax last Saturday.
Fernando Torres (still not fully match fit) found himself in acres of space and slotted home a brilliant header to give Liverpool the lead at Old Trafford. His joy was short-lived however as Mascherano brought down Valencia in the box to concede (an obvious) penalty. Any team will contest a penalty decision and so it was with Liverpool. Torres’ frustration boiled over and what resulted was an intriguing series of events. Torres, who was standing on the penalty spot swung his leg widely and removed a chunk of green from the spot. Was it cheating? Some will say he could have been carded for ‘unsportsmanlike conduct’. Whether or not he deserved a card isn’t all that important. Nor is it important whether or not he was deliberately trying to ‘cheat’. Rooney’s penalty wasn’t the best but in the end he did slot it home as Reina’s parry only helped it back into the England hitman’s path. The significance of the ‘hacked’ piece of turf may just have had great impact on the game in the second half. With the score poised at 2-1 (advantage United), Gerrard received a ball on the right flank and whipped it across the box towards Torres. The Spaniard got an unlucky bobble and the ball went spiraling off his shin. After studying the reply over and over, I am pretty convinced that the ball bounced up off the very divot dug up earlier by the striker. Poetic justice? Maybe it served him right. I’m not saying that Liverpool deserved to score, nor that United won because of fate. What I am saying however is that maybe, just maybe Torres dug his own grave. The striker would normally have buried that shot. Instead his side left empty handed and face finishing as low as 7th.
Rooney points to the spot after Torres took out his frustration.
Last night Manchester City, in their efforts to secure a win that would promote them to pole sitters in the race for 4th , allowed themselves to be out-thought, out-played and out- ‘cooled’ by Eveton. What do I mean by ‘out -cooled’? The title race and the battle for 4th are incredibly tight – possibly the tightest ever! The winners will be the team that can hold their nerve. Cool heads – that is what is needed. When the pressure is on and you need to be cool, the result can depend on who has the ‘bottle’ and who gets ‘bottled’. Torres showed a lack of ‘coolness’ when he had his little tantrum. It may have come back to bite him… United have won the League for the last three years in a row, not because they are the best squad, but because they are the ‘kings of cool’. When a cool head is needed, United have one. Even Rooney, the ‘perennial hothead’ is showing great maturity (and showed it with his reaction to Torres’ poor gardening skills). The old saying (at Wenger): ‘You can’t win trophies with boys’ is truer then ever. With Chelsea, United and Arsenal all in with a shot at the title, while Villa, Man City, Spurs and Liverpool all could go to Europe next year, the test of ‘coolness’ is on. Spurs have shown before that they can’t take the heat, but that was a long time ago and with a very different squad. Now that test (and pressure) is on. Torres lacked composure. Who else will kick the proverbial penalty spot and see the title ball bounce unluckily off their expensively-assembled-squad boot and watch their glorious chance of glory loop agonizingly over the goal mouth of success? Keep your nerve, have a cool head and you will reap the reward of not seeing your lack of self control coming back to bite you in the bum… à la Torres!
ORLANDO PIRATES SUPPORT UMU CAMPAIGN
The Orlando Pirates first team squad will make their mark in support of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ and the National Team when they sign the giant yellow Bafana Bafana jersey in Maponya Mall, tomorrow 25th March 2010.
The adidas-sponsored Bucs first team will join other sides associated with the brand –Ajax Cape Town and Western Province Rugby side -that have already put their signatures on the Unite Mzansi Unite (UMU) jersey when the truck was in Cape Town in December and AmaZulu –who signed during the Durban leg of the tour in February 2010.
“We are grateful for the support that we continually receive from our athletes during the UMU campaign and we believe the presence of the Orlando Pirates first team at the truck will further bring that sense of unity among South Africans as the countdown to the 2010 FIFA World draws nearer,” says Zobuzwe Ngobese, the Public Relations Manager at adidas South Africa.
“Our message is clear –no matter what team you support, no matter what sport you support –we should all be united behind the World Cup and our team Bafana Bafana and our campaign gives people the platform to mobilise this support. We must all wear yellow when our team is playing because this is our colour that will separate us from the rest of the world”, adds Ngobese.
The Pirates squad will sign the jersey at 13:00, 25th March 2010.