Puma is relaunching 2003 lifestyle silhouette H-Street, and we grabbed a plane to Seoul to celebrate the drop with the local community. The sportswear brand curated an immersive space that brought the culture together along with Puma ambassador Rosé from Blackpink, Squid Games actor Yuri Jo, artist Juyeon, singer Yeji, and more, to back local artists and check out the comeback of the H-Street.
The space was open to the public to have a good time, customise their Pumas with Lowa Kim, get their nails and hair done, make custom T-shirts with London-based creative Cold Archive, check out the different installations by artists Jaebum Joo, CDA Gallery and BOAT, the archive Puma exhibit curated by sneaker collector Inside Tag, and throw a day rave with the best DJs: @poinsaneodle, @soma_kim, @mokyofuckyo, and more.
“It was really important that we connect with community and culture, and we made sure that we’d work with our local Korean team,” said global marketing director for Puma Sportstyle Christina Mirabelli. “From the food and beverages down to the DJ lineup, the nail artist, and everybody has been specifically curated as part of our cultural community.
“Seoul’s a hub for global fashion and innovation, we look to Seoul to see what’s next because we feel like the trends in the past two-three years have been coming from the city,” added Mirabelli. And the H-Street fits very much into Seoul’s vibe.
For co-owner of London-based creative studio Cold Archive, Purple, this was a special project. “Last year we came to Korea for a photoshoot on the Puma Mostro, and from there we met a lot of talented creatives from the community,” Purple said. “For this activation we came back to Korea with Puma to give the creative community the opportunity to make installations, and the hair salon, nail artist and musicians to show their art. Mokyo, a very famous music producer out here – I didn’t even know he could paint – made this cool installation room, even Rosé went in there for 20 minutes and took pictures.
“The T-shirt experience is a collab with a local brand @aesynctx. It’s based on a movement from ‘90s New York: Naomi Campbell wore a T-shirt that said ‘Model Sucks” – a statement to the press. Skaters also wore ‘Raver Sucks’ T-shirts, because rave culture was taking over skate culture at the time. We wanted to continue this culture movement from the past and introduce it to a younger audience. Especially in Asian cultures, we’re not really allowed to express what we want, so this is an opportunity for everyone to express themselves.”
This was a special project for Inside Tag, too. George Roberts, the archivist and Puma collector behind Inside Tag, linked up with the German sportswear brand earlier this year for a limited-edition Mostro. Right after the drop, the Puma team asked him to track down 20 archive “track and field” pieces for this exhibit, displaying Puma’s history and huge span of interesting and unique designs, ranging from the ‘90s to the 2010s. The collection features the OG H-Street, the 2004 Talon, and the Mexico, the L.I.F.T. Racer from 2009, repped by Usain Bolt, and rare archive silhouettes such as the Puma Cell Flexicon+. “I’m so happy with the curation downstairs, it looks amazing,” Inside Tag said. “I’m a fan of going down the roots of footwear, and dragging references from shoes that were worn by the culture/ Puma serves as a great reference library for design innovation, and it’s important to showcase these.” His favourite from the collection? “I really like the Jackson. But tbh I equally love all of the shoes I sourced.”
“Archive for us is very important, we have a very rich history and heritage, and we have a very strong archive, and especially the late 90s and early 2000s where the Speedcat and Mostros came from, we have shoes and designs that are embedded in the current zeitgeist. It’s timeless designs,” said Puma’s head of select Gregor Abenstein.
And that’s where the H-Street comes in. “What Puma’s really good at doing with its retros is noticing the flaws from the 2000s and reworking them to keep up with today’s function,” Inside Tag commented, but the brand also just gets the relevance of its OG silhouettes. We’ve seen Puma do this seamlessly with the re-releases of the Mostro and the Speedcat, and now H-Street and the Talon (which Puma is relaunching soon).
The H-Street is not the highest performance technology shoe, “that’s not the intention of the shoe,” Abenstein said. “We stayed true to the shoe from 22 years ago, when it comes to aesthetics. We made some tweaks here and there which don’t change the aesthetic but just add to the comfort: we have added some reinforcement to make it more comfortable, we have slightly enlarged the width of the shoe, the sock liner is also a moulded sock liner. But from a look and feel perspective we wanted to stay true to the original. It’s not the highest technology – it’s a super light, easy, low-profile shoe to wear.”
The first drop comes correct with staying true to its original neon-green colourway from back in the day, as well as black and white iterations with the metallic silver details, but there’s a lot more to come. “We’re very much relying on our archives for our first season, but for the next season we’re trying to be more open in terms of the colours and materials,” Abenstein said, as well as some cold collaborations on the horizon.
And it looked like the community was vibing with the new H-Street here in Seoul – coming down for the day rave and bringing the best energy with them.
Featured images Puma©
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