Apparel giant to make Usain Bolt’s Rio romp memorable.... PUMA to make Bolt’s final Olympics memorable. PUMA, going back to performance with a new ‘Forever Faster’ motto. So Jamaica is the perfect fit. Who better than Jamaica and the Caribbean can represent that?”

BY HOWARD WALKER Observer senior reporter walkerh@jamaicaobserver.com  Monday, January 11, 2016    

Long-standing sponsor of Usain Bolt, PUMA, is planning to make his final Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, a special and memorable one.

Pascal Rolling, PUMA’s international head of sports marketing for running, revealed to the Jamaica Observer in an exclusive interview on Friday some of what his company has planned to mark the occasion.

BOLT... sprint star to get sizzling send-off from apparel giant PUMA in 2016

“PUMA has a long partnership with Jamaica, but for Rio I think the major star will be Usain Bolt and it will be his last Olympics. He is already a living legend, but he can really enter the history books being the first man to win three gold medals consecutively in the 100m. So most of our efforts will be around Usain Bolt [in] advertisement and communication,” said Rolling.

Rolling and his PUMA team are currently in Jamaica doing commercials with Bolt, Asafa Powell and Canadian rising star Andre De Grasse. “You can expect great things in Rio for sure. We have a new philosophy, new strategy at PUMA, going back to performance with a new ‘Forever Faster’ motto. So Jamaica is the perfect fit. Who better than Jamaica and the Caribbean can represent that?” he pointed out.

PUMA is a global athletics brand that successfully fuses influences from sport, lifestyle and fashion. Their unique industry perspective delivers the unexpected in sport lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories through technical innovation and revolutionary design.

With that in mind, Rolling revealed that there would be a different and special design of the Jamaican kit in Brazil.

“We will be doing different stuff and trying to surprise the public. There will be different outfits, and for certain events there might be certain designs,” said Rolling, who made reference to the dazzling 2004 kits that the golden girls — Veronica Campbell Brown, Sherone Simpson, Tayna Lawrence and Aleen Bailey — wore in winning the 4x100m relay at the Athens Olympics.

“There will be a special design for everyone who makes the 100m final,” he added. more