Puma Team Up With Liberty Of London For UEFA Women’s Euro Kits

With just over a month until the start of the UEFAEFA
Women’s Euro in England, Puma became the latest sports manufacturer to launch their bespoke kits for four of the competing nations at the tournament in collaboration with the renowned British retailer, Liberty of London.

Puma Football will supply the kit worn by the women’s national teams of Austria, Iceland, Italy and Switzerland in the tournament. They also manufacture the men’s teams shirts for those nations but have produced women’s specific fits and designs for the female players encompassing the ‘quintessential’ Liberty floral design into each shirt.

Commonly known as Liberty’s after its department store opened in 1875 in the West End of the city, Liberty of London has a reputation for luxury design. They have famously previously collaborated with the likes of Yves Saint Laurent and Dame Vivienne Westwood. Each design was drawn by hand in Liberty’s studio and are being marketed as ‘timeless design for fearless women’.

In addition to their kits, Puma Football have unveiled signature football boots, the Future 1.4 and Ultra Ultimate in women’s specific fit, and special-edition goalkeeper gloves, the Ultra Grip 1 Hybrid Liberty, which will be worn by all their athletes, such as Iceland captain, Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir. Each also feature bespoke Liberty floral patterns.

In a press release, Senior Head of Product Line Management Teamsport Apparel, Marco Mueller said, “women’s football has always been a priority for Puma and for this summer’s major tournament we have collaborated with iconic British retailer Liberty to produce bespoke jerseys for our female athletes to be worn on the biggest stage. Along with the custom kits all Puma athletes will wear special edition Future and Ultra Liberty football boots in women’s specific fits. This will also mark the first Future women’s specific fit, with this summer’s tournament being the perfect place to debut.”

On the ultra-light fabric, engineered to stretch in four ways to enhance the player’s movement, Mueller added “the specially designed high-performance Ultraweave jerseys and custom women’s boots are designed to give our players the extra edge this summer. Women’s football is reaching new levels and now is their time.”

Fifteen of the sixteen teams at the tournament will wear kits manufactured by the three sporting giants Adidas (5), NikeNKE
(5) and Puma (4). Denmark’s produced by their own national sportswear brand, Hummel, is the one exception. Following the success of similar campaigns to promote women-specific designs ahead of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, only Finland will play this summer in jerseys also worn by their men’s national team.

All the kit manufacturers have focused on sustainability in their marketing campaigns. Adidas claim their shirts are made from materials using Parley Ocean Plastic reclaimed from marine plastic waste. Like the Nike kits, Puma Football insist their replica jerseys at least are made with 100% recycled polyester incorporating their own dryCELCEL
L sweat-wicking technology.

The launch of the Nike England shirts last week caused controversy with jerseys priced at £114.95 ($144), more than a hospitality ticket to the final match at Wembley Stadium. Speaking to The Telegraph, member of the UK parliament for Sunderland Central, Julie Elliot claimed that the pricing by Nike was “another example of young people being priced out of supporting their team.”

In contrast, the Swedish women’s national team kit for the tournament, supplied by Adidas generated positive headlines around the world with it’s innovative marketing campaign based around jerseys with a guide on ‘How To Stop Sweden’ printed onto them.

The PUMA
UMA
x LIBERTY women’s national team Home kits are available from 13 June at PUMA.com, PUMA stores and leading retailers worldwide.