In December 2024, global sports brand PUMA debuted the launch of PUMA AI Creator tool in partnership with 2024 Premier League champions, Manchester City. The innovative AI kit design platform gave City fans the unique opportunity to design the club’s official Third kit for the 2026/27 season. The new PUMA AI Creator tool is powered by DEEPOBJECTS, a leading co-creation platform that leverages generative AI to allow fans to design their dream PUMA Manchester City kits using text prompting, customization tools and intuitive sliders. Fans could submit their designs to aicreator.puma.com through December 20, 2024.
The top 10 designs were unveiled in January 2025. Voting was then opened to the public for fans across the world to decide the winning AI design being worn by City players on-pitch during the 2026/27 season, decided by popular vote. The winning design will be unveiled in 2026 ahead of the 2026/27 season and ultimately sold to fans in a groundbreaking first for a professional football club.
Under the leadership of PUMA’s Director of Emerging Marketing Tech, Ivan Dashkov, the global brand has been at the forefront of the newest platforms and technologies. Since Dashkov began his tenure at PUMA six years ago, he has consistently demonstrated his forward-thinking approach ensuring the brand is at the forefront of the latest technologies and platforms. Dashkov’s exceptional ability to identify emerging technologies and transform them into impactful marketing strategies has been distinguishing for PUMA in the sportswear industry. This approach has further excelled and solidified PUMA’s position as a leader in innovation, setting benchmarks and paving the way rather than waiting for others to define the uses of these technologies.
Dashkov’s career trajectory has been marked by his understanding of the intersection between consumer behavior and technological advancement. He has played a pivotal role in crafting immersive brand experiences, such as leveraging augmented reality through a partnership with Meta to create the World’s Smallest Gym in Germany. PUMA has seamlessly integrated these technologies into everyday activities, expanding its presence in gaming and metaverse platforms, engaging consumers in innovative ways.
With the rise of digital fashion and VR/AR, Dashkov has bridged the gap between industries and pioneered what the future of the ever-evolving fashion, retail and sports landscapes can look like. He’s committed to pushing the boundaries of what technology can achieve to deepen consumer experiences to be more accessible and integrated, even with a brand as large as PUMA:
This approach over the years paved the way for the launch of PUMA’s AI Creator in 2024. The AI Creator platform was over a year in the making. Created to be easy to use but with endless design possibilities, the launch of AI Creator, in partnership with Manchester City, was one of the first large-scale uses of generative AI design possibilities that PUMA has implemented to date. The goal was to allow all fans - regardless of previous design ability - to be able to create their dream Man City kit in under 60 seconds. Previous jersey design competitions required fans to utilize complicated design software; with the PUMA AI Creator, all they needed to do was type in their dream kit into the prompt.
In addition to allowing fans an easy and intuitive way to create a kit, they could also submit the kit into a global design competition. The winning jersey will be announced in 2026 and will be Manchester City’s Official Third kit for the 2026/27 season.
By putting the design process in the hands of City fans across the world, PUMA is leaning into AI advancements to break down traditional barriers that would otherwise prohibit a casual fan from influencing a team’s on-field design. The AI Creator platform’s debut in December 2024 was an instant success with over 54,000 registered users, 180,000+ Manchester City Third Kits created, and over 1.7 million fan ratings. Upon the top 10 designs unveiled, over 30,000 fans voted for the winning design, which will be unveiled in 2026.
PUMA sees this initiative with Manchester City as just the beginning of other ways the AI Creator tool and generative AI generally can bridge the design gap between PUMA and its consumers across the world.
