April 28 (UPI) -- World champion sprinter Abby Steiner sued Puma and the Mercedes-Benz F1 team, claiming "defective" shoes led to permanent, career-ending injuries, court documents show.
Steiner filed the lawsuit Friday in the Middlesex County (Mass.) Superior Court.
She said the shoes led to severe foot injuries, resulting in five surgeries to date and "forced retirement" as an elite athlete. Steiner seeks more than $1.25 million, including hospital expenses and documented lost wages, and demanded a jury trial.
Neither Steiner's lawyers nor multiple representatives for Puma and Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd., which also was involved in the design of the shoes, responded to requests for comment.
Puma signed Steiner to an endorsement deal in 2022. Steiner, 26, was part of two world championship winning teams that year -- with victories in the 4x100- and 4x400-meter relays. The former Kentucky star set national indoor track records with a 22.09 in the 200M in 2022 and a 35.54 in the 300M in 2023.
Steiner, a four-time NCAA champion, competed at the U.S. Olympic trials in 2024. She placed sixth in the 200M, behind Olympians Gabby Thomas, Brittany Brown, McKenzie Long and Sha'Carri Richardson.
She announced in August on Instagram that she underwent a third surgery on her left foot and was "taking a step back from running." She also announced that she was accepted into the University of South Carolina's exercise science program.
Thomas was among the track stars to write a congratulatory message to Steiner on the social media platform.
In 2024, Steiner announced that she shut down her 2023 track season early so that she could have surgery on both feet, which impacted her timeline to prepare for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
She said that symptoms returned to her left foot during her return to the track. Steiner said an MRI revealed she had a partial Achilles tendon tear and bone spur.
In her lawsuit, Steiner claimed that the Puma shoes she wore were "unsafe, unreasonably dangerous" and "defective." She also alleged that Puma and Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd. misled customers into believing the shoes were adequately and appropriately tested and reasonably safe for their normal, intended use.
She said Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd. also had control over the design, testing, manufacture, promotion of a variety of Puma footwear, including shoes mentioned in her complaint.
"To make the best spikes for our athletes, that comply with the regulations, we connected the engineers of Mercedes AGM Petronas F1 with our best footwear people," Puma CEO Bjorn Gulden said in a 2021 news release, which announced the Mercedes partnership. "With the input from our athletes and their coaches, the team developed the best spikes PUMA has ever made."
Steiner's complaint includes images of four Puma shoes, including those mentioned in the 2021 news release, which utilized "carbon fiber plate or Nitrofoam technology."
She claimed that Puma and Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd. were aware that the shoe designs and use of carbon fiber plate and/or Nitrofoam technology "altered the biomechanics of runners or the manner in which the stresses of running impact their bodies" and "caused bone stress injuries."
"As a direct and proximate cause of defendants' negligence and wrongful misconduct as described herein, plaintiff has suffered and will continue to suffer physical and emotional injuries and damages including past, present, and future pain and suffering, including the inability to compete in track and field at the national and Olympic levels," the filing says.
The filing also states that Steiner "only recently discovered the offending instrumentality that caused her injuries" and that the "wrongful conduct and potential role played" by the shoe designs were "not apparent, evident or objectively ascertainable."