Quotes from Jochen Zeitz

We should eat less meat - all of us - and we should use less leather. I mean, that's reality.

When I became CEO, Puma was bankrupt on paper.

The problem is you can't wear your old shoes too often because people say, 'You're still wearing that shoe?'

Puma was all about function and not at all about design. The founder of the company always believed functionality and performance were the only ingredients that could make Puma successful and design never mattered.

I was actually accepted into medical school in Italy. But then I wanted to come back and learn medicine in Germany. And while waiting, I decided to join a business school. I figured it would be useful for doctors to know some business as well!

Business needs to push the agenda rather than waiting for it to happen.

I never felt that although we were based in Germany, Puma was and should be considered as a German brand. So we restructured it in a way that positioned us as a global brand, with English being the corporate language, rather than us looking at it from a German perspective.

I picked up the phone and called Herbert Hainer, the CEO of Adidas, and said, 'Well, it's Peace Day coming up. I think it's about time after 60 years to end this feud. How about doing something together?'

We all know that cattle and beef are among the biggest contributors to carbon emissions.

When I became CEO, I just didn't think about my age too much. I'm sure many people did think that my age mattered, but I didn't. That was probably because of my age.

Let's recreate the equivalent of the Met Ball in Europe and, rather than for the museum, give the money to environmental causes.

I'm a curious person, and I always like to test new waters, and I've always jumped into the cold water and then started to think about how to swim.

Being able to dedicate 100 per cent of my time to impacting more businesses without being operational, it just gives me a bigger platform.

If you look at the state of our planet, the next generations won't be around if we consider sustainability as a gimmick.

Governments have a unique opportunity to incentivise corporations so that they can accelerate their evolution to a more sustainable economy through more sustainable practices and products.

Fashion is a logical place to start to raise awareness for sustainable causes.

I call upon governments to start supporting companies to use more sustainable materials in their products instead of continuing with antiquated incentives, such as import duties on synthetic materials that are in principle much higher compared with those placed on leather goods regardless of the environmental footprint.

The puma... the cat... is not just about power and speed and strength... but it is also a very elegant animal. That's what we've tried to reflect in our products.

We decided that sports, lifestyle and fashion were three elements that could be mixed together to a very unique formula. That's what we did: make Puma a very sports-fashion brand when, at the times, everybody talked about sports and sports performance and functionality. We said, 'Well, it's about more.'

The company was ready to close its doors; there was real financial distress. But on the other side, there was high brand awareness, but that was negative because Puma was perceived as low-priced. It had lost its cachet. It was a well-known brand without a presence.

Puma is a brand deeply rooted in sporting lifestyle.

Resources are being destroyed, and if you don't have resources, you can't do business.

Obviously, South Africa is our most important market, but we are also gradually increasing our presence throughout East and West as well as North Africa. It is a continent with a lot of potential which we plan to tap into.

I could have bought a pristine part of Tanzania. But I saw a beautiful mountain, game that could come back, and country that could be rich again.