Puma x Salehe Bembury
On a quiet street in Paris, PUMA and Salehe Bembury introduced a space that behaves like a mind. At its center is the Velum, Bembury’s first lifestyle silhouette for the brand. The shoe is surrounded by an atmosphere built for close attention.
Designed with NITROFOAM™️, the Velum brings together structure and softness. It sits inside a room where surfaces appear related to it. The floor suggests skin, the walls seem to breathe. There are no digital screens or slogans. The shoe speaks through the space.
This project resists the usual split between product and setting. The lab at the center is not cold. It feels like a working idea, still alive, still changing. Bembury’s design language moves inward. His biomorphic gestures are no longer descriptions of nature. They behave like coded memory, absorbed and repurposed.
Visitors were offered 100 pre-release pairs, with Bembury present to meet them and sign the first sneakers. His presence matched the tone of the project, measured, quiet, focused.
Parts of the installation reference the H-Street presentation in Seoul, but without repeating its structure. These additions feel like small notes in a longer thought process.
Words by DONALD GJOKA
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