PUMA India has a new lead for sports marketing. Deven Deshpande has taken over as Lead – Sports Marketing at PUMA Sports India, a move he announced on LinkedIn.
“Excited to embark on a new journey as Lead – Sports Marketing at PUMA Sports India Pvt. Ltd.”
Deshpande, who is based in Bengaluru, stepped into the role in October 2026.
From e-commerce and influencers to sports
Deshpande’s appointment stands out because his PUMA career has been built largely on the commercial side. He joined PUMA in May 2019 as a management trainee after an internship with the company in 2018.
Before this move, he was Lead – Social and Influencer Marketing from August 2026. Earlier in the year, from January to July 2026, he was senior manager in the same function, planning and evaluating integrated social and influencer campaigns across PUMA’s three business units: Teamsports, Sportstyle, and Running and Training.
Most of his earlier PUMA years were spent in e-commerce and growth hacking:
- Assistant Manager – Growth Hacking from November 2019, where he worked on the launch of Virat Kohli’s one8 x PUMA collection on Myntra.
- Manager – Growth Hacking from January 2022, handling PUMA’s B2B wholesale e-commerce business on Myntra Jabong India.
- Senior Manager – Growth Hacking from January 2024, overseeing P&L operations for PUMA’s partnership with Myntra until December 2025.
Before PUMA, Deshpande was Manager of Operations at Choose To Thinq in Pune and began his career in 2013 as a mobile application developer at Larsen and Toubro Infotech in Bengaluru.
Why a commerce-first sports marketer matters
The sports marketing seat was earlier held by Suvigya Awasthi from January 2025 to September 2026. Awasthi left PUMA in September and joined Bistro by Blinkit as Director – Marketing in October.
Deshpande’s move points to how brand-side sports marketing is changing. Sports marketing now has to show up across athletes, events, influencer content and e-commerce. A leader who has run marketplace P&L and influencer campaigns is likely to judge sports marketing against commercial outcomes, not only visibility.
For marketing professionals, this is a useful career signal: a stint in performance or key account roles can become a differentiator for brand and sports marketing positions. Similarly, agencies and brand teams may see more sports briefs that ask for measurable, commerce-linked activations.
Marketers watching PUMA India can expect closer links between sports campaigns and its e-commerce and marketplace channels, especially given Deshpande’s Myntra background and work on the Kohli one8 launch.
Source: BMI Publications Private Limited
