In April 2025, Puma was struggling and announced a major management move that would substantially change the direction of one of the world’s largest sportswear brands and potentially affect its subsidiary Cobra Golf, a brand with more than 50 years of history in golf equipment. Puma replaced its CEO, Arne Freundt, with Arthur Hoeld, a 26-year veteran of one of its leading competitors, Adidas. A German-based public company that trades on stock exchanges in that country, Puma ended 2025 with a share price that was almost 50 percent lower than where it ended 2024 (€22.30 vs. €44.36), and it recorded €4.38 in operational losses per share for the year. Changes were necessary, and Hoeld made many, some strategic and some tactical, declaring that 2026 would be a “year of transition.” Early indications suggest Puma is in a better position today than it was at the end of last year, with first-quarter sales down 1 percent and its current share price about 27 percent higher than at the end of 2025. Amid this transition, the question arises: How ...