The French subsidiary of sporting goods manufacturer Puma has manufactured a complete collection in France, which will go on sale at retailer Intersport from Friday.
It is the brand’s first collection in which all key steps are carried out in France: from design to knitting, dyeing, cutting and confection to logistics.
The collection is a first for Puma and the result of more than two years of work. The local partner companies had to be brought together to produce organic cotton clothing at affordable prices between 35 and 79 euros. The collection includes a total of 13 items for men and women, including t-shirts, sweatshirts, leggings and jogging pants.
Puma expands local production expertise
“Today I am very proud to be able to offer a collection that is so deeply rooted in our country. In sport you support the team of your neighbourhood, your city, your country – today we support the French industrial team,” said Puma’s France managing director Christophe Cance in a statement on Tuesday.
With the production of tens of thousands of items of clothing, the sports outfitter from Herzogenaurach wants to support regional textile manufacturers in France. At the same time, local production also offers advantages for Puma: the shipping routes are short and the “short distances” to the partner companies make it possible to flexibly adjust production quantities.
Puma relies on Made in France
“So this project naturally took shape with remarkable momentum and together we were able to activate a whole network in the region to bring together all the production steps,” said Gilles Réguillon, President of the Chamatex Group, in the statement.
The Chamatex Group helped create the collection. Toptex Cube is responsible for project management and the patterns, Henitex for knitting, TAD for dyeing, VTD for cutting and Boldoluc, Essentiel Industry, Contino and Archer for ready-to-wear.
In the first step, the collection will be sold exclusively at Intersport throughout France until the end of June.
The trend towards nearshoring
The sporting goods manufacturer Puma has a global network of suppliers. In Europe there are only a few partner companies in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Austria, Poland, Albania, Bosnia or Turkey. This shows a list for 2022 published on the Puma SE website. The majority of suppliers are based in countries outside the European Union such as China, Vietnam or Bangladesh.
The supply chain problems during the pandemic have recently accelerated the trend towards near-shoring, the production of items closer to the sales market. For example, the clothing group C&A has opened a denim factory in Mönchengladbach and the trouser manufacturer Hiltl has had its first successes with its trouser manufacture. Chamatex and shoe brands like Salomon are also working on a shoe factory 4.0 on site in France.