STREETWEAR MEETS FASHION FOR THE NEW PUMA SUEDE MAYU
Cape Town, South Africa, 17 March 2021 — Sports company PUMA has transformed its footwear classic Suede with a cheeky and bold take on streetwear, creating the new Suede Mayu.Streetwear has made its mark on haute couture, resulting in a new age of fashion irreverence.
The Suede Mayu plays on this trend with exaggerated proportions and a wrapped platform midsole. It’s cool, comfy and inherently versatile, making it the perfect everyday shoe. Designed for the curated girl, it’s made to create unexpected looks.
PUMA SUEDE MAYUQ&A – Lois Ash (Product Line Manager of PUMA Sportstyle Footwear) and Neli Ernst (Senior Footwear Designer for PUMA Sportstyle)
What was the main inspiration behind creating Suede Mayu?
Neli: We have our icon, the Suede, and wanted to tweak and modernize it to bring it into more of a fashion space. There’s a general fashion trend with mis-proportions and making designs look a little bit off. The Suede Mayu was a way to reinterpret our classic style, by playing with proportions while keeping the general look of the Suede. The upper is similar to the original but the tooling is more blown up and extreme, serving the more modern, younger consumer. We also wanted to reinterpret the platform trend in a more modern way. Instead of just scaling up the size of the tooling, it’s a more general, blown up look. The inspiration came from Japanese street style and from the 70s – there’s quite a few things in the history of sneakers where you can find links to the style.
What makes Suede Mayu stand out from other platforms?
Lois: PUMA has had a very established space within platforms since the Creeper. With Suede Mayu we asked: how can we create something different that’s not necessarily in the marketplace and come up with a new platform aesthetic? You can make any shoe a platform just by extending it but with Suede Mayu, we wanted to add a fresh point of view to the platform.
Neli: We stand out instead of trying to follow. We’re trying to create our own design language and with Suede Mayu we did exactly that. It took some time to develop the idea. At the beginning it seems abstract (where maybe it’s a bit off) but the longer you look at it, the more you love it. The longer you see it, the more you digest it and then you’re like: actually, that’s quite cool.
STREETWEAR MEETS FASHION FOR THE NEW PUMA SUEDE MAYU
In terms of the overall colours and materials, was there any particular inspiration?
Neli: Mainly from the 70s and having some standout and playful colours next to some regular neutrals, like black and white. The suede material is quite vintage and this is how we started the design, with a retro feel. We then added a nylon tongue and the open seem where you can see the foam, which is also retro inspired.
Lois: We quite often have the normal suede in this blue and this red that we like. It’s a bit more 70s – a bit brighter and stands out. It makes a statement without being too extreme. When you imagine wearing it with wide pants or something, where you just see this flash of blue, then it’s quite cool.
Why is it called the Suede Mayu?
Lois: We started with the idea of a cocoon, as the style brings about this feeling. In Japanese, cocoon translates to Mayu. Combined with the iconic Suede, Suede Mayu made the most sense for the name.
Fashion irreverence – what does it mean in the world of sneakers and streetwear?
Lois: As a brand PUMA is a bit irreverent and rebellious. There are things that as a brand we can do that maybe other brands couldn’t do. We can be a bit daring and more out there sometimes. We do unexpected things that people wouldn’t necessarily relate to a sports brand.