It has long lived in the shadows of Nike and Adidas, but the world’s third-largest sportswear maker is forging a new reputation as a sustainability leader, partly by tilting toward “circular consumption,” where old products get recycled into new ones.
This year, Puma celebrated making more than a million replica soccer club jerseys—up from 46,000 shirts in 2023-—from 100% recycled material, with at least 75% coming from recycled polyester. Recently, it also hit several of its emissions, energy, and water-focused sustainability goals years ahead of schedule, minimized its use of air freight, and successfully created a biodegradable sneaker. (For now, customers can return the limited-edition suede shoes to Puma, which will forward the products to composting partners.) This progress has not had an obvious negative impact on the bottom line: Since 2017, even as Puma has slashed its carbon footprint by nearly a third, it doubled its annual revenue to $9.3 billion.