Hypebeast x Puma: Just For Kicks

By Miranda Yeoh  •  16 Aug 2013 in Interview

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Was it very difficult to incorporate shoe and food together into a design? It’s obviously 2 very different elements.
JT I think during the initial stage when we began to brainstorm, we began to pick out dimsum as the concept and then it was “What to do with that now?” The huge overlying theme for us was subtlety. We didn’t want to put directly images of dumplings on the shoe, we wanted something that made you think about it more that had a double take. By playing with idea of subtlety, we could be pulling the wrap of a Har Gao dumpling onto the shoes – that perfect balance of what to use and what to keep off played a lot in terms of the design of the shoe.
EK I think the most difficult part was making sure we were not too literal or in your face. You have to make sure that’s the way you present it.

Jon, you’ve been a footwear designer since 2008, you are probably used to the limitations of designing a shoe. But Eugene, was this your first time? What was it like?
EK We did 1 before but it was very simple because we basically just picked colours. That was so long ago [2008] that back then, we maybe didn’t put as much consideration as we should have. I mean, I don’t regret it, but this was much different. We were able to control so much more in this particular instance.

And did you feel that limitation this time around? How many drafts did it take to get to the final design?
JT We went through a number of trials trying to figure out how we wanted them to look. With the yellow ones it was the really nice leathers and the nice suede. That was one aspect of it, the other was mimicking the kind of skin over the tiger camo to get the right look. We went through a number of trials, I can’t even count actually now how many I was just trying this alone because of the functionality. Yes, it has to be a shoe at the end of the day so you have all these technicalities like we were either ripping the material or the material wasn’t see-through enough. We definitely went through a lot.
EK I think we did have this 1 idea to actually modify the shoe but you’d have to change the whole upper. That was the only thing that I felt that limitation, but I understand your whole point. I think it’s more interesting when you have parameters that you have to work, within those limitations. It goes both ways. If you have no limits then it’s even more difficult. You won’t know what your restrictions are and your imagination can literally run wild.

Why was the Blaze of Glory picked for the project?
EK Around the beginning of the project, Puma was starting to create a contemporary updated version for the original Blaze of Glory (the yellow Har Gao). The Puma Suede and Clyde are arguably the most iconic shoes but when it comes to the design, it’s very simple and it didn’t have the technical aesthetic of the Blaze of Glory that made it fun to play around with. How many styles does the Clyde have?
JT Not that many. At the end of the day, that worked out for us too because they wanted to use the heritage in running and we were already working on this lightweight modernised version of the Blaze of Glory so it just made sense as a brand as Puma was already beginning to push this idea. So we decided to just do a “1 and 1” because Har Gau and Siu Mai always come together anyway, it was like the perfect storm in the way it worked out.

We just wanted to ask you about the response of the designs because we got some really interesting negative comments about the shoes from Hypebeast’s Instagram account…
EK Yeah! I’m actually really looking forward to this question!

Examples are: “This collaboration doesn’t feel organic by any means – and I strongly anticipate disappointment. Sincerely your target clientele” and the other said “it smelled like a bought collaboration and not a mutual and natural collaboration.”
EK Previously from the very beginning I mentioned that even though the opportunity doesn’t come around every day, I don’t think that there’s a lot of hesitancy from big brands to approach a Hypebeast collaboration. Even now, I envision a very ideal and efficient way of working with brands and it has worked, but there have been so many other brands that are not as open to working with a digital partner even though we could help them a lot. For us it’s like “Hey, we support you and you support us,” kind of thing. When Puma gave us the opportunity, it kind of makes you think that these people believe in us. Puma as a brand, a lot of its heritage and the things that they have done is aligned to what Hypebeast is. Of all the current footwear out there, there’s no other sportswear brand that has a well-developed high fashion footwear line like the Mihara and McQueen stuff. Look around, no one else has really paid that much attention to it and that in itself is the representation of Hypebeast. We’re about streetwear and sneakers as much as high fashion. That integration and intersection is what’s interesting to us. I think it’s very difficult because if you read the pages of Hypebeast every day it’s always sneakers, it’s high fashion, maybe sometimes contemporary fashion, I don’t even think we could embody that to the full extent. We’re not just a sneaker blog and we’re not just a fashion blogger – it’s kind of fashion and lifestyle. For me, I don’t have any sense of entitlement when it comes to this job and if you give me opportunities to design footwear, then dude, I’m just going to be very playful about it.

For more info log on to www.puma.com and www.hypebeast.com.