Puma and Salehe Bembury present in Paris a unique and avant-garde collaboration The creative reveals it to us in a conversation around creativity, innovation, and sport

After conquering Paris last January with the return of its Mostro model, presented with nss france during a memorable evening, Puma returned to the capital for this Men’s Fashion Week with an equally captivating new project. It didn’t come alone, but well accompanied, as the brand has just launched its Velum model, equipped with Nitrofoam technology, created in collaboration with creative Salehe Bembury. To discover it properly and understand its complexity, Salehe kindly answered some of our questions about the collaboration.

Innovation, opportunity, energy shift: that’s how Salehe summarizes the essence of this new model and its resulting collaboration. “Working with a new company gives you the opportunity to work with their proprietary technology, which lets you create products with a new utility and a new function. Regarding perspective, I think Puma is a company that created a significant energy shift over the past five years in its different categories, like basketball. So I wanted to leverage that positive energy. I wanted to take those three elements and transform them into new products,” explains the creator. Three elements that led to a new, fruitful collaboration for the designer, who is no stranger to participatory creation. “I think that at the beginning, every collaboration is different simply based on what the brand offers, its audience, the product it creates, and a bit of the proprietary technology I mentioned earlier. I think I learn as I go because it’s a process in constant evolution. But in the end, I’m really excited to be working on new products for Puma.” he added.

But beyond innovation or seizing opportunities, a key feature of this collaboration captivated Salehe: its sporty character. A world the designer knows well, and that especially inspires him, both in his personal creations and his collaborations. “I believe that above all, you need the perspective of authenticity, that is, to practice sport and understand it. Once you understand it, you can have the necessary insights to create products and solve problems, and create products that address real problems in sport.” he explains. Regarding the balance between aesthetics and practicality, a crucial element when crafting sports shoes, Salehe is categorical: “I think it’s almost the great quest of design, because many brands sometimes lean too far in one direction. A shoe may work very well, but not look amazing, or have a great design but be very uncomfortable. So I believe successful design is finding a balance between those two things.” This promises to be a fruitful year for Puma, which has also just unveiled its H-Street model in Paris, as well as for Salehe, who once again proves through this collaboration his ability to shine both solo and in duet.