Balmain Re-Ups Its Court Basketball Sneaker With Collaborative Help From Puma
Amina Ayoud
Assistant Digital Editor
Balmain has once again collaborated with Puma to reinvent a classic sneaker that melds Parisian luxury heritage with basketball.
The joint effort saw Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing aiming his focus on updating the Balmain Court sneaker. For the limited-edition collaboration, the storied French house’s basketball sneakers were transformed with a golden Balmain tongue label and Puma x Balmain heel webbing. The special-edition kicks incorporate Italian leathers with groundbreaking performance materials including Puma’s high-rebound ProFoam and high-abrasion rubber for multidirectional traction. The revamped high-fashion sneaker will also accompany a Balmain basketball shoe box featuring both brand’s logos atop a basketball motif background.
Along with the sneakers, the collection will feature a slew of familiar American clothing items given a distinctive Parisian savoir-faire twist. These items will include court-ready Balmain warmup jackets and uniforms, as well as cozy Puma x Balmain branded baseball caps and T-shirts. There will also be special varsity jacket design riffing on Balmain’s “Teddy” jacket. For the campaign, Puma and Balmain tapped professional basketball players and Puma Hoops athletes Skylar Diggins-Smith and Kyle Kuzma.
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The Puma x Balmain Court will be available on Balmain’s website and at Puma’s flagship in New York beginning Feb. 18. The sneaker will also be available on Puma’s website on the same day for most regions of the world and on Feb. 28th in the United States.
The collection follows both brands first collaborative work created with supermodel Cara Delevingne in 2019 inspired by the world of boxing. “Back in 2019, I worked closely with the Puma team on a boxing-inspired Balmain x Puma offering,” Rousteing said in a statement. “Obviously, I loved creating that capsule — but for this second time around, I really wanted to set our focus on the thrills of basketball.”
PHOTOS: See all the celebrity attendees at the Puma x Balmain x Cara Delevingne launch party.
