Salehe Bembury Will Design Puma's Next Signature Basketball Shoe

Salehe Bembury and Puma Hoops announced a partnership today in Paris: Bembury is joining the sportswear brand’s basketball division to help find Puma’s next signature athlete and design their signature sneaker.

“The basketball landscape has remained the same for the past 30 years,” Bembury said during Puma’s Hoops Day, a celebration of the brand’s basketball ambassadors with the 2024 Olympics as its backdrop. “I haven’t seen any other brands embrace change like Puma.”

Puma has been back in the basketball footwear category since 2019, with its current roster highlighted by signature sneaker lines with LaMelo Ball and Breanna Stewart. The Stewie 1 was the first WNBA signature sneaker in over a decade, and Ball’s line of signature sneakers is one of the more popular in the space.

Alongside Bembury, Puma’s global head of basketball, Max Staiger, announced the new deal. Both wanted to make one thing clear from the beginning: Bembury’s passion for the game of basketball is a driving force behind the partnership.

“I have been a lifelong fan of the game of basketball, and a lifelong lover of footwear,” Bembury said. “What a lot of brands fail to realize is that what is necessary for shaking up that space is change and evolution.”

Bembury cited Puma’s “newness” as a focal point of his decision to sign, as well as its passion for constant innovation. He says knows that the key to making basketball footwear effective is creating something that performs very well on the court, but also offers appeal to the consumer off the court and tells an effective story.

“I think it’s storytelling,” Bembury said when asked about the most important part of footwear design. “There was a tweet about a month ago that I thought was modern genius. 'Anthony Edwards was hooping so well that people are going to have to start styling his shoes with jeans soon.' A lot of brands really try to figure out how to create footwear that works equally on the court and off the court, but if you look at the history of basketball footwear, the shoes that are successful off the courts come from moments that happen on the court.”

No timeline has been revealed for Salehe’s upcoming Puma Hoops work, but Staiger did forecast sitting down with Bembury a year from today and reflecting on all that they have accomplished.

It’s worth noting that the partnership between the two is not exclusive—Bembury will still be allowed to work with other brands, like New Balance. Staiger sees this as mutually beneficial, as allowing Salehe to work with other sneaker companies makes him who he is and only adds to his creative profile.

Complex spoke with Staiger in Paris about Puma signing Bembury and what it means for the future of its basketball designs. Read the full interview with Staiger below and stay tuned for updates regarding Bembury x Puma in the near future. The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

I want to start with this event and everything that Puma has going on out here. Can you take me through how important of a moment this is for the brand to be here in Paris?
I think just the fact that we have a day at the Olympics shows that the progress we've made over the last five years has been exactly what we wanted to see and what we planned. And again, I think the fact that we have 14 athletes in the Olympics wearing Puma, and we have a Puma Hoops Day is a credit to the original strategy that we had laid out. It works and we're sticking to it.

And I think some of the stuff that we have announced, say that we're going to add over the next 12 months. is exactly where we want to be heading. So yeah, I'm pumped and I think the team's excited and hopefully you guys are excited too.

Today's biggest announcement is the official addition of Salehe Bembury to the team. We've seen the teasers and everything, but exactly how impactful is adding a guy like him to the brand?
I think for us, we've always had this idea of this culture-first approach, really making sure that we pay as much attention to the performances of the game as we do what makes the game special, which is how basketball is connected to all these facets of culture. Again, like we mentioned maybe music or fashion or gaming or art, and really all those aspects. I think Salehe is someone that through the lens of design, really speaks to that very intersection. So I think it's not only great for us moving forward, but it's also a great validation that someone like that is choosing to work with us based on the space that we've created in basketball.

I'm sure you can't give too much away, but what do you think we can expect to see out of Salehe and Puma?
I think you can see disruptive storytelling, disruptive design, and product that you're going to want to get on your feet.

He's shown what we can do with other brands: Crocs, New Balance, et cetera. Why do you think that his partnership with Puma is going to be different from what we've seen?
I think you heard him say himself that basketball has been a lifelong passion. I don't think he's really done that space yet. And I think based on the kind of position that we have within basketball, I think it's a perfect match and I think that's why this works. So you'll see that same energy come through here.

His passion for basketball was my exact next question. He made it very clear how he feels about the game. How much of that is what drew you guys to him and how important is his passion for basketball to Puma Hoops in general?
I think we wouldn't be here today if we didn't have an unbelievable passion for the game. And I think anybody who we want to work with, be it our athletes or our partners or someone like him, you need to have a true love for the game. And I think that comes out through what you'll see on the design side and the storytelling side, and from just the feel around what the marketing will be. I think you'll see you need that passion and you'll see it.

You mentioned last Olympics, nobody was wearing Puma Hoops. Now you have 14 athletes. How different is it now than it was five years ago? And how important is it that Puma Hoops has the footprint that it does?
I think to your second part, I think it's very important that we're in this space. I think we provide the consumer just another lane, how to get connected with basketball. I think our competition that's already out there does a great job in storytelling basketball, and I think we're bringing another complementary angle to that. And I think all of us have to have each other in order to have our own spaces. I think we've kind of owned a specific segment of it that we're going to keep growing and we're excited for it. And again, if you think about it, turn back the clock to 2018, we said let's sign our first athletes and get a shoe on court for the season, to where we are now, is an unbelievable growth path and we're excited to keep going

Earlier today, you mentioned that Puma is a top-three signature brand and a top-three performance brand. Can you break down exactly what that means?
We look at a lot of data when it comes to sales in the US and if you look at NPD Sarna data that is published, we see that on a quarter to quarter basis. If you look at sellout numbers, Puma's always in that top three of either signature product or just if you put the whole performance group together, it means that people are out there, they're buying our product, we see it on shelves and most importantly we're seeing it on players across all sorts of ages and levels.

Puma Hoops has some momentum with signature stars like Stewie and LaMelo, what stands out to you about them compared to the rest of the hoopers out there?
I think both are disruptive forces in their own space. I think Melo really showed that you can have an impact from a very, very early age on. And I think you have a consumer that really has grown up with him and has gone on this journey with him from middle school to high school, to reality TV, to the NBA, and so on. I think he's really owned that journey and an unbelievable fan base has come with him. Stewie [is] one of the best basketball players on the planet and really changing the game for women's basketball since the moment she stepped on court. I think they both own very specific spaces and they're champions of them, so I think that's why it really makes them special.

Melo specifically, his sneakers are just so wildly popular amongst children. Do you think that what you mentioned about us watching him grow up and his journey is the catalyst behind that?
Absolutely. Yeah. I think it's because he has been a connection point to the game of basketball since all of us can remember. And I think he has really gone through that journey of growing up from truly middle school player to NBA superstar and people have grown up with him as well. And I think that's why the shoes really have that connection point and his story really comes out of the design, and I think that's why it's been a success for everybody.

We get to see so much of his personality and his sneakers with the collabs like Dexter's Lab, Rick and Morty, et cetera. How important is it for him to be able to show that personality through his whole line?
A hundred percent. Signature is all about amplifying the athlete's voice and he really needs to dictate how that story comes through. And I think you've seen that out of every iteration of the shoe and you'll continue to see his personality come through, if that's through favorite TV shows or stuff that he just generally likes. And obviously he's extremely involved in all aspects of the design. So if his personality comes through the product, we have a winner.

Stewie was the first WNBA star to have her own signature in a decade. How much did it mean to you, her, and the brand to be able to make that happen not only for her, but for women’s basketball in general?
I think for women's basketball in general, unbelievably important. I think also Stewie being the best in the game, she's the perfect person to start that, or let's say restart, that trend. And I think for us, I think we pride ourselves on taking a lot of actions that fall in this idea of being the first unexpected movers. I think we've done a nice job over the last five years of being a brand of firsts, always trying to be the first at either creating something new or testing a new space. And I think that the women's signature space at the time fit into that. If we think about it, we started at the right time with the right player and now look at the market. So I think it was super important and Stewie will continue to be a kind of lighthouse guidance for us as we figure out what's next in that space.

Stewie has an entire Paris-inspired collection. How important is it to be able to bring that collection to life around the Summer Games here?
The Olympics is probably the coolest athletic event that you could really attend. I mean, where else do you get something like this? And the fact that we have a product that really connects to that story and amplifies it is very special and it's an honor. And the fact that we have athletes in the Olympics and someone like her even, it just adds to that excitement that we're building.

When you look for Puma’s next signature sneaker athlete, is there anyone in the NBA or WNBA that stands out to you?
I think we want to work with athletes who want to tell their stories, and it's our job as brands to amplify that voice. And I think there's no real mold that this is what a signature athlete is. There needs to be a genuine connection between the want of the brand to amplify that story and the athlete’s want to do that. So I can't give you a specific answer, but if there's willingness on both sides to tell a story and maybe to do a little bit differently and take some risks in that, then you have a winner.

Obviously Puma is connected to names like Jay-Z, ASAP Rocky, and Rihanna. How influential are those names when recruiting athletes or someone like Salehe to the Puma roster? Is it important to be able to show that that's the caliber of star that Puma is connected to?
I think the importance in that premise is that, like we said this morning, and we'll continue to say, I think basketball more so than any other sport, is connected to this idea of the culture around sports. I think to legitimately stand there and say that you, one, have to be in basketball, but two, you also have to be connected to the culture around the game and all of the individuals you just listed and a lot more that the brand works with are intrinsically connected to this kind of culture space. I think you need both to operate in that, and when you do go and pitch athletes or partners, they'll do their own homework. I think when they see the connections in both the performance and the culture side, it just makes your pitch or your story much more legitimate and gives you a good chance to work with them if they so choose.