The Year PUMA Sharpened Its Claws
PUMA owned 2024. The feisty leaping cat company clawed its way back to the top of the street-meets-sport business through some of the year's most stylish sneaker releases and collaborations with both A-list and indie talent.
But first, let's go back in time one year. It’s late 2023: Rihanna is back with PUMA and A$AP Rocky just became creative director of PUMA F1, meaning that the most stylish couple alive is also the first family of PUMA. Oh, and Skepta debuted his own long-awaited PUMA collaboration during the runway debut of his enigmatic clothing line, Mains.
This is how PUMA had spent 2023. It quietly (and not so quietly) established major partnerships to wisely build hype for what would come in the new year. And so, by the time 2024 was in full swing, it was time for PUMA to strike.
To be clear, PUMA was always one of the big five names in sportswear and repped by plenty of famous faces, including Neymar Jr. and the late Nipsey Hussle.
But before once again earning its seat at the cool kid table, PUMA was pretty much just that: A classic brand with some iconic kicks, like the Clyde and Easy Rider. Appreciated by all but very seldom seen in today’s street style.
Lately, though, PUMA is everywhere. Runways, random fashion fiestas, and on the feet of Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s trend-forecasting family (babies included).
At the center of PUMA's big year, undoubtedly, sits A$AP Rocky — better known as the most stylish man alive. The pair have been inseparable, literally. If they aren’t creating F1 magic together, Rocky’s undisputed street style will remind us that he’s #TeamPUMA, whether it be through his sneaker of the day or a full day-off PUMA ‘fit.
Rocky dropped several collaborative PUMA collections this year, each more sought-after than the last and packed with purposely scuffed racing-inspired gear led by the Inhale OG, Rocky's first-ever signature PUMA sneaker.
Rocky is also the Mostro man. He wore PUMA’s Mostro sneaker so often that astute fans thought that he’d designed them himself. And, he did, of course, eventually releasing various pairs of beastly 3D-printed shoes by year’s end.
The Mostro and several other key PUMA models also earned a starring role in Rocky's landmark AWGE fashion show held during Paris Fashion Week. The presentation was quite literally a masterclass in dressing like the famously fly rapper, down to his trusty pointed Mostros.
PUMA’s Mostro, whose name is Italian for "monster," fuses running spikes and surf shoes into a flat, slimmed-out silhouette that invited adventurous colorways as out-there as pure pink (also, extra spikes, please!).
Though the Mostro actually returned in 2023 as part of Ottolinger's epic PUMA collaboration, the archival sneaker — it dates back to 1999 — really took off this year.
It was first feted at PUMA’s massive February fashion week presentation, “Welcome to the Amazing Mostro Show.” Amazing indeed. Among the many PUMA muses making the Mostro their own, Rihanna most notably paired her pink pair with matching pink hair.
But here's the thing: All of that pomp and circumstance was for the Mostro alone. And the Mostro was just one reborn PUMA made famous (again) this year. PUMA’s Speedcat was arguably even huger, dominating the search-scraping Lyst Index as fashion's hottest shoe for Q3 2024.
The speedy moto shoe, once epitomizing the antithesis of stylishness what with its flat sole and aerodynamically curvaceous upper, enjoyed some swiftly sold-out general releases throughout the year (pssst...some Speedcats will restock on November 26).
It also inspired a couple killer collaborations with IYKYK brands like Korea’s OPEN YY and Danielle Guizio, demonstrating not just far-reaching appeal but also an awareness of the silhouette’s adoption by international cool girls.
PUMA's Speedcat even walked Ahluwalia and Lueder's SS25 London Fashion Week catwalks, cementing the sporty shoe as a certified fashion star by gently restating PUMA’s mastery of blurring the lines between performance and style with the coolest names in the fashion.
The infatuation with all things archival and fabulously flat has created an air in which PUMA’s other classics are similarly soaking in the spotlight. Throughout 2024, for instance, PUMA heavily pushed its Palermo OG model, an ‘80s throwback swiftly popularized by tastemakers like Emily Ratajkowski and BLACKPINK’s Rosé. Even PUMA's unconventional GV chunkster earned some fashion cred.
Indeed, these days it's all about flat-soled sneakers so unassuming that it's almost surprising that they're so in-demand. You can trace the origins of this movement to forward-looking collabs “shaving” down the heels of dadcore classics (cough, Miu Miu’s New Balance 530s, cough) and hit styles like the adidas Samba, which is arguably on the way out as PUMA's shoes enter the conversation.
Even if true, it can't be denied that sneakers like the Samba opened the door for subsequent low-soled models.
And though adidas itself sparked the search for Samba replacements with a handful of reborn terrace classics, the hunt for newness has boosted fresh faces like PUMA .
PUMA’s not just taking over stylish sidewalks, either. PUMA is simultaneously beefing up its presence on the court, adding powerhouse designer Salehe Bembury to join its Hoops team in July. Bembury has already lent his golden touch to almost every major sneaker brand.
Now, he’s tasked with creating PUMA's next signature basketball shoe.
Bembury has designed dad shoes, outdoorsy foam sneakers, and even luxury hiking shoes but this PUMA gig is his proper first basketball shoe, a courageous appointment deserving of a brand as adventurous as contemporary PUMA.
But given Bembury’s track record of dishing seriously hyped sneakers, Bembury’s PUMA basketball shoe is already assured a place in culture.
PUMA’s bright future isn’t mere assumption. The brand really is winning the sportswear aesthetics race, reflected in rising sales and boosted interest — one resale site noted an astonishing 2,638% rise in searches for the Speedcat alone and a 2,022% bump to PUMA searches — proving that PUMA’s 2024 was no fluke. Especially in a year that reigning king Nike is reeling, there's never been a better time to go in for the kill.
The Speedcat is revving up and the Mostro is baring its claws. Come 2025, PUMA is poised to pounce.
