As reported here, to celebrate the 2010 FIFA World Cup, sportlifestyle brand PUMA has launched PUMA City NY, a month-long activation of the full brand experience featuring events, programs and parties for the soccer aficionado and the casual fan alike.
Situated in the heart of South Street Seaport along the Lower Manhattan waterfront, PUMA City NY opened its doors to the public on the first day of action in the 32-team tournament (June 11) and will remain buzzing with activity until the presentation of the FIFA World Cup trophy next month (July 11).
Building on the excitement and success of PUMA City Boston in 2008-09, PUMA redesigned PUMA City especially for New York and for the World Cup taking place in South Africa.
The new version of PUMA City consists of two separate shipping containers that have been specially designed and re-configured as a retail space. These “pop-up” shops are where PUMA apparel can be purchased, including replica jerseys for all PUMA-sponsored teams, New York-specific T-shirts, wrist bands and soccer balls as well as PUMA footwear such as lifestyle shoes and soccer boots.
The outdoor space of PUMA City NY consists of what has been dubbed the PUMA Beer Garden, in partnership with the Red Bar, which has essentially been converted into a World Cup viewing area where visitors can catch every game of this year’s tournament on several big screen televisions while sipping on a cold one.
Adjacent to the PUMA Beer Garden is a T-shirt customization area where jerseys or T-shirts purchased in the aforementioned “pop-up” stores can be customized at no additional cost.
PUMA City’s outdoor gaming area keeps the spirit of artistry, sport and competition alive between each World Cup contest with foosball and ping-pong tables as well as an artists’ station where visitors can customize and design soccer balls, T-shirts and create objects of all shapes and sizes out of select PUMA laces. The laces have been provided through a special charity program co-sponsored by PUMA and the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).
In addition, PUMA City’s Football Pitch can be found merely a hop, skip and a jump away. The Football Pitch is where visitors of all ages can channel their inner Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo by participating in kids’ clinics, human foosball, pick-up games and tournaments while demoing PUMA’s brand new soccer boots that are being worn by the athletes in the World Cup.
After the last World Cup match has been played for the day and afternoon turns into evening, visitors can head over to the PUMA Social Club, a lounge/party bunker complete with a bar, foosball and ping-pong tables, and a resident DJ spinning today’s hottest tracks.
And with an entire calendar of events on tap for the duration of the World Cup, from Day 1 it has become readily apparent that PUMA City NY is the place to be for New Yorkers to drink in the total World Cup experience.
“We just want people to come down and have fun”, said PUMA North America Senior Director of Marketing Tara McRae. “PUMA is truly, truly excited about being able to prop up the city of New York for the World Cup, for the entire month, to celebrate.” McRae went on to add that, “I think you’re going to see a lot more of this from us.”
For the complete calendar of events at PUMA City go to www.pumacity.com.
For more information about the South Street Seaport go to www.thenewseaport.com.
Become a fan on http://www.facebook.com/puma and www.facebook.com/pumafootball or follow the happenings via twitter at @thepumastore and use #pumacity for any tweets about PUMA City NY.
Click here to read the original article on Examiner.com, which includes relevant links and a photo montage of PUMA City NY's opening weekend in pictures.
The Total World Cup Experience: PUMA City NY at South Street Seaport
