Plain PUMA? No, Genius Fashion Shoe
2024 might just be all about PUMA. PUMA is setting itself up for an even bigger 2025, too, with everything from the rebirth of its classic moto shoes to the surprise fashion redemption of its most ordinary sneaker.
Since the end of 2023, PUMA has been sort of killing it. But Slam Jam's PUMA GV sneaker collab, which is the first step in repositions one of PUMA's simplest sneakers as a fashion icon, is proof that PUMA is about to go supernova.
Slam Jam, the venerable Italian streetwear tastemaker, has updated the unassuming PUMA GV sneaker with a pale colorway, tasteful leather upper, and silver details — including metallic laces and Slam Jam's anarchic logo on the tongue — intentionally making the already-ordinary shoe look even more like “medicare utility shoes” by Slam Jam's own admission.
As pointed out by one meme shared by Slam Jam itself, though, the PUMA GV is the next-level low-profile sneaker already adopted by trend-averse “creative strategists” who wear “elevated basics.”
You can keep your conventional terrace sneakers — those who look beyond know that PUMA's got next.
Unfortunately, Slam Jam's PUMA GV sneaker isn’t for sale, but it likely won’t be long until you start seeing the PUMA GV worn around downtown New York by the movers and shakers of style, much like other PUMAclassics that are enjoying a new life as a Cool Kid shoe.
At the end of last year, influencers like Emily Ratajkowski were seen switching out their oversaturated adidas Sambas for PUMA Speedcat sneakers and that was just the beginning of the PUMA redemption arc.
A$AP Rocky, for instance, started wearing one of the hardest Pumas to pull off, the Mostro, on the heels of his F1 capsule collection and and just dropped some fashion-y updates to an archival racing sneaker, his first-ever PUMA sneaker collab.
PUMA has got next. Even its most ordinary all-white chunksters are soon to step over the obvious low-profile classics.
