Puma has announced the appointment of footwear designer Salehe Bembury as head of design for the brand’s basketball division dubbed Puma Hoops. Bembury will create a signature shoe and will also help recruit a new player to add to a roster that already includes LaMelo Ball, Scoot Henderson, Flau’Jae Johnson and Breanna Stewart.
Known for his bold approach, Bembury’s resume includes Versace, New Balance and Crocs where he transformed the brand with his update on the Classic Clog.
Bembury fills a role vacated by Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter who was tapped to direct the brand’s basketball division in 2018. Carter passed off the baton in 2020 to stylist June Ambrose, who was creative director of Puma basketball for three years and announced she was stepping down from the role in December 2023.
Commenting on the role in an exchange with Complex that took place during the Paris Olympics, Bembury said, “I have been a lifelong fan of the game of basketball and a lifelong lover of footwear. What a lot of brands fail to realize is that what is necessary for shaking up that space is change and evolution.
“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.”
Stay tuned for more details on Puma basketball upcoming releases.
