The bottom line at the brand with the leaping-cat logo grew 38% year-on-year, to 187.4 million euros (US$211.1 million).

Operating, or underlying profit grew at around the same pace, to 337.4 million euros, on the back of sales up 17.6% at 4.6 billion euros.

Puma highlighted its sponsorships of sports personalities like French striker and football World Cup final man of the match Antoine Griezmann, as well as beloved teams like AC Milan, that put its logo in front of hundreds of millions of eyes worldwide.

Its 70th-anniversary year also saw the Bavarian firm return to basketball wear in partnership with Jay-Z, while it recruited supermodel Adriana Lima and pop star Selena Gomez in the women’s category.

Looking ahead to the full year, Puma said it expected sales to add 10%, for an operating profit of between 395 million and 415 million euros — up to 19% higher than in 2018.

“Puma is well on track towards achieving our medium-term ambition of 10% EBIT (operating profit) margin by 2021/22,” the group said in a statement.

But investors were initially unimpressed with the Puma results.

The shares tumbled as much as 7% immediately after the release before recovering slightly, trading down 2.1% at 471.50 euros by 10:20 am in Frankfurt (0920 GMT).