JOACHIM Zeitz, the boss of Puma, is getting excited. Not about shoes, or running, though there is an element of sport in his latest philanthropic project. “We just started the Laikipia Unity Cup,” he says. Yes, it’s a football tournament, but with a difference. Drawing teams from across the sprawling region of northern Kenya, it offers services such as health checks and vaccinations to players and supporters alike while theatre troupes put on plays that teach conservation and community development values.

It may seem a far cry from being a titan of Germanic industry, but it’s perfectly in keeping with his status as an honorary Kenyan Game Warden. “When I’m there I take on the responsibilities of a warden,” he says. “My farm is 50,000 acres with lions, buffalos and leopards. It’s a migratory route for elephants and has four endangered species. I’m setting up a tourist operation that will go live in the second half of the year.”

Values are central to what Zeitz is about. Ask him what was wrong with Puma when he took over and he mentions them. When he talks about the mutual respect between him and his new boss, Gucci head Francois-Henri Pinault, you can hear them in the background. He has worked to make Puma transparent on issues such as its suppliers’ treatment of Chinese labour (its policy is to pay above minimum wage) and his company’s environmental impact. “We’re looking for materials to replace leather,” he says. “We were the first to sign up with Greenpeace to be non-toxic by 2020.”

When Zeitz took over Puma he was the youngest boss of a listed company in Germany. “I knew I was going to be the CEO at 29, but we delayed the announcement for a few months until I was 30 because it sounds too bad,” he says. He’d been with the company less than three years, and had seen as many CEOs depart before the company was sold to Swedish investors. “I was about to leave,” he said, until a shareholder invited him to tell the board what he thought should be done to save the company.

He travelled to Sweden to give an hour-long presentation, complete with the 1990s version of Powerpoint — charts on transparent acetate on an overhead projector. Puma had been making losses for eight straight years, and each time the management would apply a cheese grater, cutting costs a little bit here and there while creating uncertainty everywhere. Zeitz told them to do one big restructuring and then start rebuilding the brand. “You have to go through a few rough months but then you can build on that great heritage.”

That heritage goes back to the end of the First World War when two brothers, Adolf and Rudolf Dasler started making shoes in their mother’s laundry in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Their first big success came with the 1936 Berlin Olympics, when American sprinter Jesse Owens won four gold medals while wearing their trainers.

The brothers both joined the Nazi party, but fell out during the Second World War. According to one, possibly apocryphal, tale, the split came when Adolf and his family climbed into an air raid shelter already occupied by Rudolf and his family. “The bloody bastards are back again,” said Rudolf, probably referring to the Allied bombers. But Adolf thought the remark was meant for him. Later, Rudolf blamed his brother for snitching on him when American soldiers arrested him as an SS officer. Zeitz laughs when he hears this story. “I don’t know if it’s true,” he says.

In 1947, the brothers went separate ways, with Adolf forming a company based on his nickname, Adi, and the start of his surname, Das — Adidas. Rudolf’s company later became Puma. The rivalry lasted until just a few years ago. “.”

When Zeitz became CEO of Puma, he had a mountain to climb. The company was 150-million Deutsche Marks in the red and his first task was to persuade its bankers to let him go ahead. “I never want to go to a bank again if I don’t need to.” It took four years to pay down the debt. Although the brand had plenty of history, it had by then become synonymous with low-price trainers. Margins were thin and if anything had gone wrong the company could have slipped back into the red. Its manufacturing was still in Europe, when its rivals were making shoes in China. Although Zeitz quickly managed to get it on a sound footing, long-term profitability came from an unexpected direction.

“We needed to find a new mojo,” he says with a sophisticated European calm that suggests he’s a man who could never lose his mojo. It was Friday afternoon and he was relaxed in a corner of the Wyndham hotel before speaking at a National Commercial Bank function. “Research at the time told us: Don’t even try,” he continues. “The opportunity came along when a fashion designer asked if she could use our soccer boots on the runway. We said that wouldn’t work because they have cleats but we could make some sleeker shoes that you could wear.”

The new shoes were a huge success for the designer, and Puma started to look at expanding into fashion. “We became successful not in traditional sports but in lifestyle and fashion. They looked sporty but were as comfortable as fashionable shoes; they went well with your dress. We innovated in new styles that blended design and fashion with sport.

“The competition thought we were completely insane. You weren’t allowed to use the word fashion with sports. We created a new segment, sport lifestyle.” It’s now a recognised segment of the shoe market, and no self-respecting popular musician would be seen in public in anything other than the trendiest of sneakers.

Which is not to say that Puma was out of the woods. The company found itself in trouble again in 2007, when the financial crisis hit. Fortunately, Zeitz already had a white knight lined up to ride to the rescue, Pinault’s Pinault-Printemps-Redoute. “They wanted me to become the CEO of the Gucci group but I wanted to stay with Puma. They were interested in expanding and I said why don’t you buy Puma. They wanted another leg to stand on next to luxury.”