Puma CEO apologises to Borussia Dortmund fans after criticism of cup kit

Borussia Dortmund’s cup kit for the 2021/22 season sparked criticism from supporters after it was released earlier this week. Now the CEO of Puma has apologised. 

Borussia Dortmund finally released their cup kit for the 2021/22 season on Wednesday evening as the players wore it out on the pitch for their UEFA Champions League opener against Besiktas JK in Istanbul. The neon yellow kit was met with plenty of criticism and anger from supporters on social media.

Puma CEO Björn Gulden has now apologised to the Borussia Dortmund supporters and promised to take the feedback into account when designing future kits.

"“We regret the fans’ anger and would like to apologise to them,” Gulden told dpa. “The fans’ criticism relates to the fact that the BVB logo is merely incorporated into the material tone-on-tone several times, as well as embossed on the chest of the jersey in a larger size, but is just not clearly highlighted as the club crest.”“We have really taken the feedback to heart and will take it into account for future jerseys – just as we have done in the past.”"

Borussia Dortmund’s cup kit would have been released last month when Puma launched similar third kits for the many other European clubs they are the suppliers for, including Manchester City, Borussia Mönchengladbach and AC Milan. Those kits had the names of the clubs displayed across the chest rather than their badges.

Borussia Dortmund’s cup kit for this season was also supposed to have a similar design. But fan criticism and anger over how the jersey was initially supposed to look like prompted the Black and Yellows to change the design. The club even issued a statement in May saying that the actual jersey would look a lot different than what the leaks suggested.

The final version of the jersey does feature the club badge on the chest, however it is embossed which makes it very difficult to see unless you look at it closely. BVB Managing Director and Head of Marketing Carsten Cramer said on Thursday that they took the initial criticism from supporters very seriously.