PUMA’s paw print gets lighter

PUMA’s new, more sustainable packaging and distribution system, Yves Béhar’s ‘Clever Little Bag’ has gained a lot of attention over the last day or two. It looks like an intelligent move, and a serious change from standard shoe packaging. By switching to a sheet of folded cardboard inside a recycled PET bag, PUMA will be cutting down its consumption of water, paper, and electricity, and should reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 10,000 tons.

This innovation is clearly welcome, but will it start and end with PUMA? Hopefully not. One of the claims, or hopes, laid out in the promotional video is that the Clever Little Bag ‘may one day change the industry’. This idea appears to be backed up by the words of PUMA CEO/Chairman Jochen Zeitz, who Treehugger quotes as saying ‘there is a patent pending for the bag design but that he would be happy to share it with others and make it a universal system.’ It’s a positive sign, and may be a precursor to a joint approach to the other issues faced by companies such as PUMA, Adidas and Nike.