Puma

The company started in 1924, and was created by Rudolf and Adolf Dassler, two Germans. The first big success for these brothers was when Jesse Owens won 4 Olympic gold medals while wearing the Dassler shoes. In 1948, the company decided on the name PUMA and officially became a business on October 1st, 1948. In 1950, another great accomplishment happened for the bothers when several members of the West Germany national football team wore the Puma football shoes. In 1954, Germany's premier team wins the championship with the majority of the players wearing the new and improved football boot, called "BRAZIL." In 1954, Heinz Fütterer breaks a world record in track and field wearing Puma shoes. In 1958, the company launches its logo and in 1960 Puma is the first and only shoe company that uses the "Technologically advanced vulcanization production technique" which is when the boot and the sole of the shoe are in fact connected and not two separate pieces. From 1962 to 1968 Puma shoes are sported by many star athletes such as Eusebio and Pelé. In 1977 Puma is used in tennis and Guillermo Vilas wins many championships wearing Puma shoes including the French, US and Australian open. Puma becomes very popular in the tennis world in the 1980s when Broris Becker wins the championship wearing Puma shoes and using a Puma racket. In 1993, Jochen Zeitz becomes the CEO of he company and is responsible of getting them out of the financial difficulties they were currently in. He succeeds and Puma becomes one of the top 3 sporting good companies. In 1998, Puma signs with Serena Williams and she proceeds to win the US Open, the France Open and is ranked number one in the world. Puma now creates many different sporting goods such as clothing and equipment and of course many different designs of shoes. 


I love puma, it is one of my favourite brands. Believe it or not I prefer Puma shoes over Nike and not many people can say that. I find them more comfortable and a lot lighter than other running shoes. I don't have any of their apparel but I do wish to get some soon. A puma store recently opened in Windsor and I would love to check it out soon. I was very interested while reading the history of this brand not only because the story was great but the format that the website had the information was very cool, and helped keep me interested. 

http://about.puma.com/category/company/history/

Tommy Hilfiger Co.

Tommy Hilfiger was created by Tommy Hilfiger himself, which answers the question of the name of the company. Hilfiger actually started in the fashion industry while he was in high school. He managed to open a small line of clothing with only $150, he named it People's Place. He taught himself everything he knew and dreamed to move the company to upstate New York and be a full-time fashion designer and in 1979, his dream came true. Mohan Murjani noticed Hilfiger and loved his work. He was a businessman and new that with Hilfiger's help he could accomplish a lot. So together they created a line of men's dress up clothing. In 1985, Hilfiger hired George Lois, and together they designed a billboard to put in the middle of Times Square. In 2007, the two men created a book called "A Roller-Coaster Ride Through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture." In the 1990's, Hilfiger used rising music stars such as Brittany Spears in his advertising which brought the company even more business. In 2009 the company launched its website which allows people to purchased their product in the comfort of t heir own home. The company has only improved since then and continues to grow today. 

Tommy Hilfiger has received many awards, some of which include:
Parsons School of Design - Designer of the Year in 1998
GQ Magazine - "Men of the Year" Issue
Council of Fashion Designers of America - Menswear Designer of the Year in 1995
VHI's "From the Catwalk to the Sidewalk" Award
Drug Abuse Resistance Education - Future of America Award which is the highest honor in that organisation

And many more..

Tommy Hilfiger is one name brand that I do not own, mind you I did when I was younger. I actually have a funny story about that. When I was about 10 years old, I had a pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans that I had received as a gift. I loved those jeans, they were "the best pair of pants I ever had" and I wore them everywhere and everyday possible. Unfortunately, you can't stay a size 10/12 and I grew out of them. But that didn't stop me from wearing them. I continued squeezed into them until it was a bit ridiculous and my mom gave them away without me knowing. Believe it or not I cried when I found out what she did. Ever since I haven't owned anything from TH, nor have I entered a store. 


http://global.tommy.com/int/en/About/biography 

Coach

For my next blog I will talk about one of the most ridiculously expensive name brands out there. Coach is a company that sells mainly purses but also has many other accessories such as wallets and backpacks, scarfs, hats, and even shoes. The company was founded in 1941, and started out as a family owed business. Throughout the 1940s and the 1950s the company did not make too much profit but they were not too concern about it at the time. In 1960, the idea to use leather to create the purses was discovered. At that time, women's purses were just made of cardboard that were covered in thin leather, this was the first invention of high quality, long lasting purses. In 1961, The Cahn's bought out the factory with borrowed money and took control of Coach. For a while Coach stuck to an elegant style and stayed more reserved with the company. In 1969, the came out with the "bucket bag" and the fringe "shimmy" bag. In the early 1980s, Coach was dong very well. They were producing several different products and they were occupying 4 stories in a building on 34th street. They were even paying their employees a couple dollars more than other factories at the time because they believed in a good relationship between employers and employees. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Coach decided to make a little change and try selling their products out of a department store. This was such a great success that they were selling out of all the products and they could not keep up with the demand. They weren't quite ready to move from where they were to somewhere bigger so they stopped the department store idea and continued to keep the business on a personal level. They even started inviting some long time customers to the factory to see how the product was produced. In 1983, the Cahn family decided to buy 300 acres of land and have a farm named the Coach Farm. But by 1985 they realized that none of of the familys children wanted to take over the company so they sold it.

When they made a deal with Sara Lee who was also a food company, they sold it for an estimated amount of 30 million dollars. So they took 1 million of the profits and split it between 200 of the long lasting employees. When the new owner Lew Frankfort took over the company it only went upward from there. He opened many stores and sales went up drastically. By November of 1986 there were 12 stores. Since then the company has continued to evolve and become better and better. By 2012 there were about 500 stores open in the U.S and Canada and 300 stores in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. 

I do own a few coach purses, but I did not buy one of them at full price for the simple fact that the product is extremely expensive. A medium sized handbag is around $500, and for a small wallet to put inside that handbag, $100. I find this outrageous, therefore I look for sales when I go into a coach store. I do enjoy the product though, the quality is very good and the service in the stores is very good. I found the history of this brand extremely interesting, I always like it when a company starts out as a small family owned business and grows to be a world wide.



http://www.coach.com/online/handbags/genWCM-10551-10051-en-/Coach_US/CompanyInformation/InvestorRelations/CompanyProfile

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/coach-inc-history/

Nike, Inc.

Nike was founded by two men, Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, 
who wished to start a revolution in the shoe industry. Bowerman was a track and field coach at the University of Oregon and he was always trying to figure out different ways to improve the skills of his athletes. He tried different kinds of energy drinks, different track surfaces and different kinds of running shoes but all of the footwear manufactures at that time shot down all of his ideas. Knight was an runner from Portland who went to the University of Oregon and really wanted to get into Bowermans track program. When Knight finished in Oregon he went on the Standford University where he earned his MBA in finance. After this he wrote a paper to propose the idea of a high quality running show that would be manufactured in Japan and compete with German brands that were much more established. He then called the manufacturer of Tiger shoes and asked them if he could become one of their distributors. When they sent him his first par of sample shoes he sent them to Bowerman and to his surprise Bowerman not only sold the shoes for Knight but he also asked him to be his partner. 

In January of 1964 they made their first order of 300 shoes and while Knight sold the shoes out of trunk of his car, Bowerman ripped the shoes apart to try to find a way to make them better. Their mini company was named Blue Ribbon Sports. Unfortunately, both Bowerman and Knight had full time jobs so they were not able to dedicate all their time to the company. They proceeded to hire Jeff Johnson who was a runner Knight had met at Stanford. "Johnson became the first full time employee of Blue Ribbon Sports in 1965." 

The first store opened in Santa Monica, and the name Nike was discovered in 1971. The "Swosh" which is the logo of the company was designed by a Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student at the Portland State University. 

One of the pairs of shoes that Bowerman designed was inspired by his wife's iron. It gave him the idea to do a waffle patterned sole for extra traction. Now the company had a new name, a new logo, and a new design they just needed a start athlete to "elevate the new Nike line" and they found Steve Prefontaine that did exactly this. Unfortunately he passed away at the age of 24, but is known as the "soul of Nike."

Between 1980 and 1989, Nike went through a sort of revolution. The brand was discovered by an NBA rookie, Micheal Jordan. Thanks to his discovery of the brand, the Nike Air line was created. In 1988, the company started a campaign titled "Revolution" and in that period of time is when the famous line "Just Do It" was created. 

Nike has only improved since then and has had many accomplishments such as signing the entire World Cup - Winning Brazillian National soccer team and designing their uniforms. Tiger woods also started using the Nike Golf products with helped the publicity of the company. They have also come out with many new products such as the Nike Shox. The company has been extremely successful since the started in 1950. I personally do not own very much of this brand. My boyfriend owns a lot of their NFL line of clothing and he really likes it. I have one pair of shoes and to be honest they are not very comfortable. I prefer my Puma running shoes which is odd because when purchasing my Puma's I was told that they are not for running but more for doing other kinds of physical activity. I think that it is great that one mans idea was able to become so big. He was very smart in the way he did things and I think he could be an inspiration to many young athletes who wish to invent some kind of sports wear or equipment. 



"President and CEO Mark Parker said: "At NIKE, Inc. we run a complete offense and its based on a core commitment to innovation. Thats how we stay opportunistic, serve the athlete, reward our shareholders, and continue to lead our industry.""

http://nikeinc.com/pages/history-heritage