Designer Jeffrey Campbell is someone you can say has his finger on the pulse of what’s popping in shoe design. If there’s a silhouette or material story that has buzz, he’s very good and chopping and screwing various influences whether runway or street-inspired, and creating something new and different.
That said, from time to time, it’s clear that some of his shoes are apples that didn’t fall too far from the tree. Case in point, the Pabst (get it? Pabst Blue ribbon) low top sneaker, which looks remarkably like Puma‘s Basket Suede sneaker.
Beside the Puma logo, the only clear difference between the two is that Jeffrey Campbell’s version uses satin laces and Puma’s uses velvet. They’re also slightly different versions of pink. Often times one of the appeals of a take down is price, but oddly enough, they’re both carried at Nordstrom and Jeffrey Campbell’s is priced at $99.95 and Puma’s is $79.95.
Given how hard it is to copyright silhouettes, it probably won’t be easy for Puma to do much about Jeffrey Campbell’s take down (if anything it could plead its case with Nordstrom). The bigger point is that all of roads of influence go back to Rihanna, who created the original Fenty bow sneaker that Puma’s own Basket Suede sneaker was inspired by.
In conclusion, as always, all hail the queen.
