Where better to see what truly goes into designing
that type of equipment than here, Puma's global headquarters
in Herzogenaurach, Germany
We came here to meet the company's global creative director
Torsten Hochstetter
to find out more about his vision about the World Cup kits
he designed and the technology within
He designed national kits for no less than eight partner teams competing in Brazil
Algeria, Switzerland, Uruguay, Ivory Coast, Ghana
Italy, Cameroon, and Chile, and all feature new technologies that Puma
calls Power ACTV
Thank you very much Torsten for having us we actually now looking at
the shirt football players at the World Cup right now are wearing so what
is special about that?
Well this jersey, first of all, that's the Italian Jersey that
Italian Federation will be wearing at the World Cup and in
the games and we made sure that the execution is right for the culture of
the country
so particularly for Italy it was important to have some sartorial aspect
about the jersey suggest the collar line for example
but also the badges, you know, this is a high-definition heat transfer
are lightweight and are really performance executions
so do the national teams also have a say in how their shirts are going to look
like then?
Absolutely, we work very closely
with the athletes but also with the Federation's, obviously
and it's important to have that input and really get the feedback from the
athlete right away
Last week I was just coming back from Coverciano
which is the actual training facility
for the Italian team and I was talking to the athletes, to the coach
also to the medical staff and get feedback on how they really feel
and to make sure that we would include that feedback into our design
So let us have a look at that special technology here
how does it look from inside?
right let's have a look at the inside
now the ACTV technology and as you can see here
is anatomically placed silicon print
and is strategically placed
on the item so that it really enhances the movement
of the athletes when doing the sports, when playing football actually
particularly
in this case
And does it have other effects like cooling?
It has the effect of cooling when you wear it
when you first wear it, but the main
idea behind the ACTV technology is to bring back, bring together
the idea of compression so when the muscle
fatigues sets in, it really compresses the muscle
but in the same time it also has to support
attributes to the muscle and also to the athlete
where it meets
So how long did it take to actually develop such a shirt?
The technology is more than two years when we look at the technology we make
the first research
So about 2 to 1 and 1/2 years
before it really can come to life
Where do you take those ideas from?
We look at the sports itself
We also look at the culture of the sport's and then make sure that we are able
with the technologies to support the athlete to really perform better
How much just technology really driving as well the success
of the football team? What do you think?
I think it's
very important because the athlete wants to be supported
from a technological perspective, from a physical perspective
but also emotionally. An athlete wants to go out and
feel right in the jersey that he wears.
So right now this is the most
technologically advanced shirt we can get for a football player
so looking into the future could it happen that
the regulator might step in if you're getting
far more advanced then perhaps the shirt is more important than the player?
We certainly will continue to explore technology
and find new ways to help the athletes perform better
we do by the way have an innovations team that takes care of that
and that is going to influence also the future but
in reality you're looking at the future right now because that technology the ACTV
technology is an award-winning technology
that is good for the athlete
Of course it's called football for a reason and the boots are actually the most
important weapon
in a players arsenal
For these shoes, why actually are they in two
different colors?
Well, that's a wonderful story
because it was a former player
Rigobert Song, who was the captain of the Cameroon national team
who at the World Cup in France in 1998
dared to walk out with two different colored shoes and
it was a clear statement of his passion for his nation
but also the fun and joy that football expresses
And why did you choose pink and blue as colors?
We felt we wanted to
portray exactly that - the passion, the joy and the fun
that goes into football and therefore we picked these two colors
Run me through the technology which is
hidden in those shoes?
These shoes which is EVO power technology
we wanted to explore barefoot kicking and
if we look at the tooling it has a spine running through
and very high-level of flexibility in both ways
for the plate so therefore you really mimic
barefoot kicking which optimizes power
But they seem to be also
having a certain control here in that part of the shoe?
That's right there's a high level of stability
the lateral side and the upper material is flexible in a horizontal way
and therefore this again enables you to
have higher level of control or accuracy
as well as power - which really important is also the
foam that's applied at the vamp of the shoe
and at the moment of impact it has a very good distribution a force
and therefore the moment you strike you have a very high level of accuracy
it really gets a player an edge and again it helps the athlete to perform better
So from the professional athlete to the excited
fan that just wants a piece of the team's magic the science behind sport
constantly propels everyone forwards