In September 2021, Puma Canada and North America received over 1,000 individual letters, along with a registered letter from the organizations supporting “Canadians calling on Puma to end its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association.” Several pickets were held in Vancouver in recent weeks.
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It seems perhaps Puma is on th defensive wishing to try to explain away it involvement with the Israeli National Teams.
The Canadian BDS Coalition has been calling on Puma to end its sponsorship of the Isreal Football Association sinc 2019.
Letter received from Puma in response:
Re: Letter to PUMA Canada/ PUMA North America (Maguire/ Philion)
21 October 2021
Thank you for reaching out to PUMA. As specified in PUMA’s Code of Conduct, compliance with human rights, labor rights and environmental standards is of critical importance to the PUMA brand, evidenced by our various initiatives over the past twenty plus years. Given your inquiry and the importance of these issues, we feel it is necessary to more fully describe our product distribution in the territory.
PUMA does not support football teams in settlements, nor does PUMA or its distributor have branches, stores, factories, warehouses or any other operations/businesses in settlements.
PUMA’s local distribution partner supplies the Israeli National Teams with PUMA branded football equipment to compete in international competitions. Beyond that, PUMA does not have any other connection or association with any other Israeli football club team – neither in mainland Israel nor in settlements.
The six football teams which play in different leagues of the IPFL (Israeli Professional Football Leagues) and are based in Israeli settlements in the West Bank (Ma’ale Adumim, Ariel, Bikat HaYarden, Kiryat Arba, Givaat Zeev and Oranit) are not equipped with PUMA products, but are supplied by other sports brands originating from other companies. There is no relationship to PUMA.
PUMA does not support any political direction, political parties or governments, but continues to support and outfit athletes from all backgrounds, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation and national origin. We welcome the opportunity to help everyone compete in sports, no matter who they are or where they are from.
Best regards,
Peter Mastrostefano
SVP General Counsel
*bold in the letter is our emphasis
Over 30 organizations supported this call by the Canadian BDS Coalition.
Since 2019, contact has been made with the head of Puma in Canada calling for a response. Several responses have been provided during 2019, and 2020. See reply in December 2020 to CAnada Palestine Association