The TAKEOFF Magazine

PUMA in the Pit

By Ralph Hardy

In 2009 Romain Mesnil, a French pole vaulter with a PR of 5.95 meters and a silver medal from the 2007 World Championships, ran through the streets of Paris naked, hoping to attract the attention of a sponsor. His contract with Nike had expired the year before, and a global recession forced athletic brands to face harsh economic realities. The video of Mesnil went viral; it was even shown on French state television, though pixelated. Unfortunately, a sponsorship never materialized and Mesnil soon retired, clothed.

Over the next decade, a handful of elite pole vaulters found sponsors, generally Nike and Adidas, but if the swoosh was ubiquitous, as were the three stripes of its competitor, both felt like more of an afterthought rather than a corporate commitment to the sport. Yet in the admittedly niche world of elite pole vaulting, a seismic shift began in 2019. It wasn’t the emergence of new and prodigious pole vaulters or the development of a magical compound that gave poles new flex. No, what made the tectonic plates shift in the pole vault pits around the globe was that PUMA--not Nike or Adidas- -was going all in on sponsoring pole vaulters.

The first spike dropped when PUMA signed 19-year-old Armand (Mondo) Duplantis. The pole vaulting prodigy from Louisiana was coming off an NCAA championship as a freshman and was ready to compete --and get paid--with the big boys. The tousle-haired, wide-eyed Swiss-American had worn Nike in college at LSU, but PUMA recognized a star when they saw one. After all, they’d signed Usain Bolt in 2003, when the world’s fastest man was a sixteen-year-old stripling, to a record-breaking 20 million dollar contract, at the time the largest ever contract for a track and field athlete. So when PUMA and Mondo made their sponsorship announcement in Stockholm, people sat up and took notice. As Shakespeare wrote in King Henry V, “the game is afoot.”

PUMA athlete Mondo Duplantis

Then came Renaud Lavillenie. One of France’s twenty most popular athletes, Renaud is an Olympic gold and silver medalist, multiple world champion, and former world record holder. A global superstar, he was a regular at the Nike campus and wore custom-fitted Nike kits. Now his famous partly-zipped jersey carries a bounding puma on the chest. And after a rough 2020, as of March 2021, he’s regularly back over 6 meters.

PUMA athlete Renaud Lavillenie

As befitting a European company, PUMA stayed on the continent. Piotr Lisek, the screaming, muscular Polish six-meter vaulter, wears PUMA, as does his fellow Pole Pavel Wojciechowski. The young Belarusian Matvey Volkov, who cleared 5.50m at the age of fifteen, also sports the pouncing feline.

But PUMA was just getting started. Women’s pole vaulting was taking off in popularity, and PUMA swooped in and signed high school vaulter Chloe Cunliffe. Cunliffe, who holds both indoor and outdoor high school and under 20 records turned pro after her senior year of high school, eschewing college for a chance to focus solely on vaulting and making the Olympics. Even though her older sister, Hannah, is sponsored by Adidas, Chloe chose PUMA. “I just like the clothes,” she said in an interview with MileSplit. Okay, then.

PUMA wasn’t done. A bubbly, strawberry blonde, former Arkansas Razorback with an impressive social media presence named Sandi Morris caught their eye. She announced in early 2021 that she was leaving Nike with a tweet and a short video: “New year, new sponsor. Who dis?” the tweet said, followed by a video of the artistic vaulter painting a black leaping mountain lion and then dancing with the framed image. Nearly fifty thousand people watched the video of the 2018 world champion and six time U.S. champion changing brands. Later that month, decorated Swedish vaulter Angelica Bengtsson tweeted her delight upon signing with PUMA. “I am oh so happy to announce that I’m now finally a part of the #PUMAfam,” she wrote. More athletes followed, including another Swiss vaulter, Angelica Moser, world U23 champion in 2019. Never had pole vaulters felt so much love.

PUMA athlete Sandi Morris

The sneaker and sports apparel wars are big business. They began long before a skinny kid from the University of North Carolina laced up his basketball shoes and took the NBA by storm. The first manufacturer of sports shoes, the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory was formed in 1924 in Herzogenaurach, Germany by brothers Rudolf and Adolf, whose nickname happened to be Adi--Adi Dassler. You see where this is going.

In 1936, the entrepreneurial Dassler brothers drove to Berlin with a suitcase full of track shoes and persuaded Jesse Owens to wear them, the first time an African American athlete was sponsored. Owens, of course, won four gold medals, and soon after the brothers were selling two hundred thousand pairs of shoes annually. An acrimonious split in 1948 led the two brothers to part ways, with Adi forming Adidas and Rudolf forming the company that eventually became PUMA.

Across the pond, in 1964, Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight founded Blue Ribbon Sports, a track shoe company developed from a hot waffle iron and some glue and rubber at the University of Oregon. Blue Ribbon was renamed Nike in 1971 and the “swoosh” became an iconic symbol in the world of track and field. In 2019, behemoth Nike saw revenue come in at just over 37.4 billion dollars, while Adidas Group took in approximately 32 billion. Little brother PUMA took in just over 6 billion dollars, but PUMA’s sales have doubled over the last five years, while its larger competitors remained fairly stagnant.

TAKEOFF Magazine reached out to PUMA to get an insider’s look at the emergence of pole vaulting in PUMA’s marketing decisions. Pascal Rolling, PUMA’s head of sports marketing for running, graciously responded.

What made PUMA decide to go all in on pole vaulters and not other field events?

PUMA has had a strong presence and made strides in several field events over the last years. U.S. triple jumper Will Claye and Jamaican world champion long jumper Tajay Gayle are just a couple of examples. With regards to the pole vault, it is perhaps one of the strongest and most exciting events in all of track and field at this time. Following the signing of Mondo Duplantis, we also had the opportunity to add to the roster some top names on both the men’s and women’s side in lead up to this year’s Olympics, and moving forward as well. Those being, but not limited to: Renaud Lavillenie, Piotr Lisek, Sandi Morris, Angelica Bengtsson, and Angelica Moser.

Is PUMA looking to sponsor additional vaulters?

We are in a very good place and extremely happy with all the athletes who have joined the PUMA family so far. While we are not currently looking to add anyone in particular, that doesn’t mean that we would not consider future prospects. That goes for all disciplines.

What has been the response from pole vaulters--as well as consumers/fans from their sponsorship?

There has been a lot of excitement and buzz in general around PUMA’s signings of track and field athletes, as well as those in the more traditional distance running space. I think everyone welcomes the fact that there are more brands investing in the sport and thus its future.

What is PUMA’s company culture/ philosophy? How do they hope to support elite vaulters?

PUMA has a long and rich heritage in track and field and we have always looked to sign athlete-ambassadors who embody not just sporting excellence, but also those who match the brand personality and ethos as well. Usain Bolt, Colin Jackson, and now Mondo Duplantis, just to name a few, are great examples of that. In terms of supporting vaulters or any others in the sport, PUMA is investing not only in the athletes themselves through sponsorship contracts but in performance products and innovation as well.

What, if any, are the plans to support youth pole vault events and build the next generation of vaulters/track and field athletes?

We sponsored the “All Star Perche” pole vault event organized by Renaud Lavillenie, and will keep our eyes open for any interesting opportunities.

Can we expect event-specific shoes such as jumping spikes/ gear for pole vaulters?

Mondo, Renaud, and the rest of the current pole vault squad are all jumping in spikes that have been engineered specifically with the athletes’ biomechanics and technical needs for the event in mind. We will continue to strive for further product innovation in our spikes across all track and field events.

Pole vaulting has been an athletic event for more than 150 years, yet it’s likely the sport has never been in a better place than it is in 2021. Despite the pandemic, more vaulters are knocking on five and six meter bars. Records are falling, sometimes weekly. Clubs are full, and in arenas across the world, television cameras are trained on the runway where more and more vaulters wear a leaping lion across their chests.

It’s hard not to roar.

PUMA athletes Mondo Duplantis and Renaud Lavillenie

Photos provided by PUMA