All eyes were set on the match between Italy and Sweden yesterday evening at Puma's Herzogenaurach headquarters as the Italy national team had the chance to save Puma's already worse-looking 2018 World Cup prospects. The outcome was not in favor of both Italy and Puma...
The German is now confronted how to make an impact in Russia as only two teams will wear Puma jerseys in the tournament, Switzerland and Uruguay (No other country that can still qualify for the tournament is supplied by Puma)
Puma Drops From 8 Teams to Just 2 Teams
We will only see two Puma kits in the 2018 World Cup in Russia - Those of Switzerland & Uruguay.
The battle of brands for the top club teams has been heavily dominated by Adidas and Nike in the past decades, but the World Cup kit battle was not nearly as clearly divided between the two giants in the past. In fact, Puma supplied the kits for 8 teams in the 2014 World Cup, only slightly less than Nike (10 teams) and Adidas (9 teams).
In 2010, Puma made the jerseys for seven national teams, while they even made the jerseys for more national teams than both Adidas (6 teams) and Nike (8 teams) in the 2006 World Cup (Angola, Czech Republic, Ghana, Iran, Italy, Ivory Coast, Paraguay, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Togo and Tunisia).
For Puma, it means that they now have to hope that Switzerland and Uruguay will make a big impact in Russia. The chances, however, seem to be far better that their star players such as Agüero, Fabregas and Griezmann could save the tournament for them.
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