PUMA, one of the most socially-conscious brands in the apparel industry, is kicking off the second season of its charitable Project Pink, aimed at fighting breast cancer in the USA. During the previous year of the program, which was started last summer, the brand raised over $60,000 donation to the Breast Cancer Research and Education Fund at Magee-Womens Foundation. Now, through a series of sport-related events, new line of sport gear and activity to raise more money for a new organization battling breast cancer (to be named here), the brand continues its program with the help of Project Pink spokeswomen, female soccer athletes (Amy Rodriguez, Leslie Osborne and Tasha Kai among others) and PUMA Women’s Soccer Ambassador Julie Foudy, who teamed up with PUMA in late June.
According to the press-release, this year the brand is planning to go forth, “putting the power and the energy of Project Pink in the hands of young soccer fans and enthusiasts who choose to make Project Pink their personal projects, thus choosing to inspire change and do good.” To raise awareness of the problem and engage more people, helping get better financial support for the cause, actress Nina Dobrev (Vampire Diaries), joins the roster of celebrities, and will act as the project’s spokesperson this season, starring in the project’s videos and connecting with fans via her Twitter channel @ninadobrev in addition to other activities.
The range of events to be launched as part of this year of Project Pink, include special activities in-stadium for professional women soccer fans (during some games throughout the 2011 season), ‘Score a Goal Against Breast Cancer,’ netting additional donations from PUMA during non pro games as well and a charitable race to name a few. In addition to this, fans will be able to use Twitter hash tag, #projectpink, to boost donations—PUMA will donate an additional $1, up to$25,000 for one tweet with the tag per user per day between July 6 and October 31.
Just like it was last year, the brand launches PUMA’s Project Pink Collection, a new expanded line, which is said to include “a full Project Pink uniform—down to a fabulously fluorescent pair of pink soccer socks—supercute lifestyle tees, a brand-new PUMA Project Pink watch, and a gym sack perfect for stowing the line’s full-sized and mini soccer balls.” The brand is also inviting people to nominate the organizations which will receive 100% of the profits from the sale of the Project Pink merchandize plus the money raised with the help of themed events throughout the season—the applications are accepted at www.puma.com/projectpink July 17 –September 22, with the public voting to be running September 26–October 7.