Puma wants to tie in with the old days when the sportswear company united the worlds between fashion and sport with Jil Sander and share this heritage with a new generation of creatives. Meanwhile, the young target group is discovering the rusty hobbyhorse of motorsport as a new trend, and so the big cat from Herzogenaurach is also giving it full throttle. There is also a reboot with superstar Rihanna.
The company, which has access to a 75-year archive, is celebrating its anniversary year with a number of surprises and, of course, is not losing sight of next year’s Olympic Games. Heiko Desens, Global Creative Director at Puma, explains what Puma still has in the starting blocks for the coming period and what developments are currently occupying the sports and lifestyle industry.
Puma celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. What will the anniversary year bring?
Earlier this year we had our ‘Archive Green’ as a special colour, which we launched with a special product drop. In addition, as part of the 75th anniversary, we also brought our motorsport history to life.
We have something very glamorous in the pipeline for the end of the year – a limited edition to celebrate 75 years. It’s an anniversary edition of a ‘Classic Silhouette’ that we’ll also be outfitting some of our assets with. It will be glittery, shiny and very high quality and luxurious. We will then launch it around the date of our anniversary in the fall.
Will luxury replace the streetwear theme for you?
We’ve focused a lot on streetwear and this year we’re going to revisit the high fashion theme as well. In the broadest sense, we refer to what we stand for and are known for. We are originally the disruptors who brought this sportswear and fashion theme together.
With Jil Sander, we got the ball rolling and shook up the industry. This year we want to refresh this part of our heritage in a very targeted manner. The collaboration with Ottolinger that we recently teased is part of that.
So the bag with Ottolinger was just a teaser?
The girls and the brand [Anm. d. Red.: Ottolinger wird von den Designerinnen Christa Bösch und Cosima Gadient geführt] suit us and are exactly what we define for ourselves. So in September comes the next chapter with clothing. But we will also continue with the bag and the mostro, which we have already shown, so that it becomes a whole look.
Will Puma be back at New York Fashion Week in September?
There will be a return to New York Fashion Week, but not until February next year. This year we are relatively prominently represented at Paris Fashion Week with Ottolinger and additional fashion partners. That’s why we made a strategic decision not to open another location.
They also celebrate Rihanna’s return to the Puma family. Does this build on the previous collaboration?
The cooperation is in full swing and will come in autumn. But we’re not going to play the Rihanna concept the way we used to. There will be small, targeted drops and we’ll start with footwear – targeted and recurring instead of the big show moments with catwalk. We’ve redefined that for ourselves and that’s what Rihanna wants too. Link the styles to her in a targeted manner and continuously expand them.
And here, too, will the footwear be built up again?
Exactly, we’re starting with footwear for the first few months – until the middle, end of next year – and then we’ll gradually add other product groups.
And who are the products aimed at?
They are unisex. We will not make women-specific products per se. Of course, that weighting will likely be two-thirds women, one-third men. But we definitely want to make sure it’s open to men as well. There will be men who definitely want it, and we have to make sure that certain shoes are also made for men. That was the last time the Creeper was originally open in a full size set but the emphasis was more on the women.
Is the collaboration part of your ‘must-win’ strategy, which highlighted the women’s range as one of the important areas?
Rihanna continues to be important to our women’s category. She is the best advertisement for us – as an artist and businesswoman she is extremely successful.
How should the area be expanded?
We have women’s specific running and soccer shoes and the world’s best athletes under contract. Our customers are very important to us and that’s not a lifestyle fashion cliché. In the running area, our ratio is now 50 percent women. In all important strategic product groups, women are in balance with men, sometimes even more so.
In July alone there were collaborations with Porsche, Ferrari and Mercedes. Is this how Puma wants to secure pole position?
Motorsport was a bit of a stepchild of ours because nobody really wanted it. Thanks to these ‘late 90s, early 2000s’ trends, which are very dominant, especially for young people interested in fashion, this whole motorsport vibe is fortunately coming more to the fore again and we can do it with our super large archive – ten to 20 years – make full use of.
You could already see that with all the streetwear brands on the catwalks. But that’s more of a synthesis of different types of motorsport that come together. It’s not just motocross or Nascar, it’s actually a blend of the look – a bigger macro trend that takes on that colourfulness and vibrancy. That plays into our hands extremely.
Are you going full throttle now?
We recently had a Ferrari drop that was very successful and then you could already see how that look translates into this fashion world. We presented this small capsule in Miami. The next major event will follow in Las Vegas at the end of the year, where the first “Formula 1 Entertainment Show” will also take place. We will also be there with specific mini collections and projects that we are launching for this time.
With silhouettes like the Mostro, you have already played on the theme in the fashion sector.
In the last ten years, shoes have become larger, thicker and more voluminous. Big running and platform shoes, Balenciaga has done it. Now we see that a lot of young people are embracing this low-profile trend, which of course goes hand in hand with football culture, but is now becoming really extreme with motorsport-inspired shoes.
The Mostro we’re working on is a familiar shoe for those old enough. But for the young, new fashion consumer, this is just a new, crazy, exciting shoe.
What trends do you see in the areas of lifestyle and sportswear?
This high-tech area is very important to us – this high-tech look, this very futuristic look. This covers the entire performance area, but also goes into lifestyle or fashion. This again has a connection to those early 2000s. A lot of tech clothes were worn there – it was this dance rave culture slippage. A lot of technical materials and colors as well as metallic shine.
In the archive you also have some technical developments such as the RS computer shoe or the DISC system. Did you find something there that could go with the high-tech trend?
Yes, we have a shoe that the fashion world and sneaker fans are talking about right now – the Kugelblitz. This was a crazy design experiment in the early 2000s. If you look at Givenchy’s running shoe, it’s almost like a spitting image of ball lightning from our archive.
He always gets a lot of attention from us, all partners want to see him – such an unknown icon who looks so crazy. But do we bring it back? Probably not. Sometimes you have to let such icons rest and just use them as inspiration.
Innovations play an important role, especially in the field of sportswear. Can you give us an insight into what you are currently working on?
The Nitro performance technology is definitely our main topic next year, especially in the context of the Olympic Games. So far we have had communication mainly in the area of running and marathons. For the Olympics, we equipped a large number of track and field performance shoes with Nitro technology. Then we will expand it into the other categories – in basketball there is already a successful performance shoe with Nitro technology.
