PUMA® City NY Takes on the Big Apple With Football by Day and Parties by Night

WESTFORD, Mass., June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Sportlifestyle brand, PUMA® will be taking over the South Street Seaport in New York City June 11, 2010 – July 11, 2010 to create a football (aka soccer) experience that is unmatched.  The month-long activation is being coined PUMA City NY and is a full brand experience complete with events, programs and parties for the football enthusiast to the fashionable New Yorker, and anyone in between.

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The first PUMA City made its US debut in Boston last spring for the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 and quickly became the most popular event space and venue in the city.  While in town for three weeks during the around-the-world sailing race, the three-story, 22 shipping container built PUMA City made a name for itself as THE place to be, and be seen.  Building on this success and excitement, PUMA has redesigned PUMA City especially for New York and for this summer's global soccer event taking place in South Africa.  This new version of PUMA City consists of two separate shipping containers that have been specially designed and re-configured as a retail space.  PUMA teamed up with renowned architects LOT-EK and builders SGBlocks on the design and construction.  

Each unit transforms a standard 40-foot shipping container: two large pods slide out of one side of the container, expanding its interior space from 320 square-feet to 560 square-feet. On the opposite side, two large panels, cut out of the container's corrugated steel wall, open up to allow access to the shop, creating a canopy and an entrance ramp.  PUMA City is designed for ease of transportation, deployment and recovery. Taking advantage of the shipping container network, the 25,000 lbs units travel as conventional containers to be rapidly erected and create an exciting and spacious retail experience. All fixtures are built-in to minimize onsite set up.

"Our goal is to give New Yorkers a true brand experience, combining sport and lifestyle with an element of design," said Antonio Bertone, PUMA's Chief Marketing Officer.  "PUMA City NY will allow us to interact and connect with our consumers on a unique level during the largest sporting event in the world – the World Cup.  This is just one of several pieces in our overall plan to celebrate the games."

In addition to the retail space, there will be a football pitch used to host mini-tournaments, pick-up games, clinics and everything New Yorkers will need to get in the football spirit. PUMA City will also have a fully operational event space – The PUMA Social Club, where the brand will host DJs, ping pong tournaments, foosball games, athlete appearances and more.  The PUMA Social Club will, like PUMA,  be the perfect mix of sport and lifestyle to help New Yorkers get to know all that the brand stands for.  Given its national relevance and its standing as an iconic and cultural New York City landmark, the South Street Seaport was the ideal location to host all of the activities for PUMA City NY.

PUMA has been preparing for the 2010 games for months and is embracing its rich history in African football.  So much in fact, that the brand has replaced its iconic PUMA Cat with the African continent.  PUMA is a sponsor to seven of the qualifying teams of this year's 2010 FIFA World Cup, including the reining World Cup Champions – the Italian National Team, as well as Cameroon, Uruguay, Algeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Switzerland.  

As part of our long-standing relationship with PUMA's 13 sponsored African football teams, PUMA has created a special Africa Unity Kit that has been approved as the third kit for each of these teams in 2010.  The kit is a symbol of unity as is meant to help raise awareness and funds for biodiversity conservation through PUMA's partnership with the United Nations Environmental Programme 2010 International Year of Biodiversity.  PUMA will be celebrating Unity and African football throughout all of the programs at PUMA City.    

PUMA Football's portfolio includes five European National Teams, including current FIFA World Cup™ holders Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Czech Republic and 13 African soccer Federations including the current CAF African Cup of Nations™ holders Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Tunisia, Namibia, Morocco, Angola, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo. In the US, PUMA is the official sponsor of the Women's Professional Soccer League and has a roster of athletes including Marta, Natasha Kai, Leslie Osborne, Amy Rodriguez, Karina LeBlanc, and Alex Scott.  PUMA also sponsors men's players including Jay Demerit, Brian Ching, Heath Pearce, Dwayne De Rosario, Matt Reis, and Kasey Keller.

For more information about the events happening at PUMA City go to www.pumacity.com.

For more information about the South Street Seaport go to www.thenewseaport.com.

Become a fan on http://www.facebook.com/puma and www.facebook.com/pumafootball or follow the happenings via twitter at @thepumastore and use #pumacity for any Tweets about PUMA City NY.

PUMA

PUMA is one of the world's leading sportlifestyle companies that designs and develops footwear, apparel and accessories.  It is committed to working in ways that contribute to the world by supporting Creativity, SAFE Sustainability and Peace, and by staying true to the values of being Fair, Honest, Positive and Creative in decisions made and actions taken. PUMA starts in Sport and ends in Fashion. Its Sport Performance and Lifestyle labels include categories such as Football, Running, Motorsports, Golf and Sailing. The Black label features collaborations with renowned designers such as Alexander McQueen, Mihara Yasuhiro and Sergio Rossi. The PUMA Group owns the brands PUMA and Tretorn.  The company, which was founded in 1948, distributes its products in more than 120 countries, employs more than 9,000 people worldwide and has headquarters in Herzogenaurach/Germany, Boston, London and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.puma.com

SOURCE PUMA