Global Sports Company PUMA is announcing a game changing partnership with design visionary & cultural icon, Salehe Bembury. Bembury will join PUMA Hoops to not only design the brand’s next signature silhouette, but also help to recruit the brand’s next signature athlete. With unmatched style and deep ties into the culture of basketball, the partnership will allow PUMA Hoops to continue its game changing path within both performance and culture.
Bembury has already changed sneaker culture in recent years through groundbreaking designs, world class collaborations, and polarizing silhouettes. His progressive designs have challenged sneaker conventions and ended up on catwalks, celebrities, and athlete’s around the world. He is now bringing his vision into the PUMA brand with a clear focus on it’s fastest growing segment – Hoops.
“My designs are a platform for storytelling and cultivating community; an opportunity to breathe new meaning into a product. While my work has been known to cater to the outdoor space, a space I recently developed an intimate relationship with, my partnership with PUMA Hoops will allow me to tell a more deeply rooted personal story,” shares Bembury, “As a 90’s kid from New York City, I’ve played basketball my whole life and have a deep history, emotion, and nostalgia for the sport. I’m excited to leverage this collaboration as a catalyst to introduce an untold side of me and engage a new community.”
The partnership will see Bembury designing the brand’s next signature silhouette, helping to recruit the next signature athlete, and within the process create a new look & feel within basketball itself.
With an already disruptive line of product designs, influenced by a diverse boundary breaking roster that includes the likes of LaMelo Ball, Breanna Stewart, and Flau’Jae Johnson, the arrival of Bembury will only elevate the unique culture first storytelling even more. The partnership will yield a new creative edge and further challenge the conventions of performance and signature basketball within the culture of the game.
“Today’s game is as much about performance as it is about the culture. Within signature that means being able to tell the athlete’s story both on and off the court. Salehe has had unrivaled success of bringing to life the intersection of sport, culture, and fashion through product design & storytelling. That combination, mixed with PUMA Hoop’s disruptive approach, results in a partnership that will bring game changing newness and excitement to basketball athletes, basketball consumers, and basketball culture – both on and off the court.” said Max Staiger, Global Head of Basketball for PUMA.
