Thread by @zhr_jafri

When Puma offered 120000 $ to Pele to tie his shoe laces in 1970 football World Cup final

Pele was probably the best football player of his time

Despite that top 2 shoe brands of that time: Adidas & Puma had an informal agreement (The Pele Pact) to not sign Pele for endorsement

The Pele Pact was an understanding between the two companies as they knew if they attempted to sign Pele, it would lead to a crazy bidding war and hurt both financially

Hence, during late 60s they decided to avoid signing Pele

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That's the reason Pele had to sign for a small English shoe company Stylo in the late 60s

Puma's representative for the Brazil team, Hans Henningsen became friendly with Pele. While he tried signing other Brazilians, he always stayed away from Pele for obvious reasons

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But when Pele was irked that Hans never discussed endorsement deals with him, Hans tried taking it up with the big shots at Puma

Later an agreement was reached to sign Pele for 120k $ and a % cut for all sneakers sold under Pele's name

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Puma didn't reveal this right away. Instead waited for the right time

1970 world cup was the first one to be ever telecasted on Colour TV. And Brazil entered the finals. That meant Millions would be watching Pele during the match

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Right before the kick off, Pele asked the referee for some time to tie his shoe laces with the cameras zooming into the famous Puma logo on his shoes

And Puma got millions of impressions right away by breaking the Pele Pact triggering a war to get players for any costs

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