The Gendered Politics of
Puma: 
The Gendered Politics of
Puma:
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Background Information:
The idea for a worldwide sportslifestyle shoe company began in the early 1920’s when fifteen-year-old Rudolf Dassler began working at a shoe factory. Not long after he began this job, he and his brother Adolf started their own company making slippers and outdoor shoes. It was not long after they began their company, when they chose to start making track shoes and football boots. Rudolf ran the business while Adolf was in charge of the technical aspects and production. In the late 1940’s the Dassler brothers split the company due to a family feud that had erupted. Rudolf began Puma while Adolf began Adidas, these two companies have been competitors ever since. Adolf got the name Adidas from the first three letters of his nickname (Adi) and the first three letters of their last name (Das). Prior to the split, the company had found its first major client, the sports club in Herzogenaurach, they ordered no less that 10,000 shoes per order. Despite the lurking depression, the Dassler brothers’ company took off; over half of the athletes at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam wore their shoes. During the 1936 Olympics, African-American track star Jesse Owens introduced them to the rest of the world, when he won four gold medals while wearing Puma shoes. Just a few short years after the Dassler boys had their falling out and one company became two.
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10 Things Every Consumer should know:
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The Word on the Streets…
Our first interview was supposed to be with Puma. We tried contacting them on many occasions via email but they were unresponsive. When doing much of the research for this project we discovered that people who had projects and papers that were similar to ours also had trouble getting a response back from Puma. It would have been nice to just get a general courtesy email saying a generic response like “Thank you for your interest in Puma. We will be replying to your email shortly.” But even this seems to be too much
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What you can do….
There a few things you can do to stop the exploitation of women and other workers in these factories. First off, you can simply boycott Puma items. You can also write in to Puma and let them know you do not agree with what they are doing. If enough people complain and bring attention to the topic, it will more than likely force Puma to do something to improve the working conditions. Spreading the word to people you know is also a good way to bring attention to the topic.
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Puma and Gender
There are many ways that Puma products are gendered. According to the Clean Clothes Campaigns report, “Conditions of Women Workers in Special Economic Zones and labor standards in supplier factories of German garments from China-based factories with documented labor violations.” Play Fair, which is a joint venture between the Clean Clothes Campaign and Oxfam examines abuses behind clothing manufacturing. According to them, “Pretty girls in the factory are always harassed by the male managers. They come onto the girls, call them into their offices, whisper in their ears, tough them at the waist, arms, neck, buttocks, and breasts, and bribe the girls with money and threats of losing their jobs to have sex with them”. A worker, who was interviewed, described this to the campaign. Also, at the sweatshops, women are forced to take periodic pregnancy tests and are fired if the test positive.
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Sources…
For a more comprehensive bibliography click here |
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This website neither endorses nor condones Puma Shoes this is strictly informative
©2008 Sociology 357 Matt Stark, Jenna Pumilia, Erica Morales
