PUMA LAUNCHES evoPOWER AT INTERACTIVE FOOTBALL EVENT / Cesc Fàbregas, Mario Balotelli and Marco Reus Demonstrate Power and Accuracy Achieved Through Revolutionary Boot Technology in Barcelona

Barcelona (ots) -

- Multimedia News Release (MNR) is avaliable at:
www.multivu.com/mnr/64184-puma-launches-evopower-football-event -

PUMA kicked off its 2014 Nature of Believing campaign, with the
launch of the revolutionary new evoPOWER football boot at a live
event in Barcelona last Friday. PUMA Power players Cesc Fàbregas,
Marco Reus and Mario Balotelli put their football skills to the test
on the evoPOWER wall, the custom built football simulator that
utilises Hawk Eye technology to measure players' power and accuracy.
evoPOWER was inspired by the freedom of movement of a bare foot -
Fàbregas, Reus and Balotelli showcased their skills and the boots
performance enhancing technology through four interactive challenges.

An audience of media and competition winners from around the world
joined PUMA in Barcelona to test the new evoPOWER boot and see the
live and interactive event. The launch was co-hosted by football
legend and PUMA player Thierry Henry, who guided the players' through
the challenges and offered valuable insight into the design
inspiration and product benefits.

evoPOWER is a new performance boot designed to enhance a player's
natural kicking ability, and optimise a player's power and accuracy
when striking the ball. Inspired by the power generated from the
freedom of barefoot kicking, evoPOWER features the most advanced PUMA
footwear technologies to date in its football category, and will be
worn on pitch by Cesc Fàbregas, Marco Reus, Mario Balotelli, Yaya
Touré, Nemanja Vidic, Dante and many others.

Cesc Fàbregas said, "I really enjoyed the experience; it was a
great product launch. To unveil the new PUMA evoPOWER boot though a
live demonstration and showcase the technology and benefits that the
boot brings to a player was an excellent idea. The challenges were
very competitive, seeing our power and accuracy score from each shot
really was an incentive to try and beat those other guys."

Marco Reus added, "I first saw an early version of evoPOWER boot
some months ago and have been really impressed with the thinking
behind its design. It was a fitting stage to launch the boot, there
was an electric atmosphere and everyone in the room was clearly
impressed by the evoPOWER wall and the technology of the boot. The
challenges were designed to really put us all to the test and having
some of the competition winners join us for the final breaking down
the wall challenge was a nice touch. I always like to meet football
fans and an experience like this event was a great thing to be a part
of."

Mario Balotelli commented, "The launch was great fun with all the
guys together. Having only joined the PUMA family last month, it was
a privilege to be able to take part in the event and join Cesc and
Marco in launching the new evoPOWER boot. There's been a lot of hype
about this new boot over the last couple of weeks as we've been
wearing a camouflage test version on pitch and in training. We
finally revealed the proper boot and showed the world the impact the
evoPOWER boot can have."

Cesc Fàbregas, Marco Reus, Mario Balotelli and Thierry Henry
feature in an exciting short film showcasing field tests conducted
exploring the unbelievable power and accuracy of evoPOWER. This and
all other evoPOWER assets can be downloaded at http://news.puma.com/

The evoPOWER boot and the full range of evoPOWER accessories and
apparel launch in-store on 1 February, 2014.

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Notes to editors:

For rights free images, B-Roll, packaged video content and further
product information please visit the PUMA Press Centre at
http://news.puma.com/

Media Contact:
Tim Stedman, International PR, PUMA, +49 151 1474 3148,
tim.stedman@puma.com