Balmain has a rich history in luxury fashion since its founding in 1945, but the French fashion house often ventures into the worlds of streetwear or sportswear and the label has just unveiled their first basketball collaboration with PUMA.
Balmain‘s luxury undertones can be seen in full within the new basketball collection that’s called on professional basketball players Skylar Diggins-Smith (Phoenix Mercury) and Kyle Kuzma (Washington Wizards) to front the campaign.
Creative Director of Balmain since 2011, Olivier Rousteing had some interesting thoughts on the collab: “For this second time around, I really wanted to set our focus on the thrills of basketball. Over here, we’re all big fans of le basket and French people are extremely dedicated to their favourite American teams.
“Plus, honestly, is there any group of athletes more fashionable than basketball players? So, I’ve long believed that a mix of Balmain‘s modern Parisian luxury codes and b-ball emotion would make for the perfect combinations.”
Featured in the new collection and seen in the gallery above is the new Balmain x PUMA Court trainers – a classic PUMA silhouette that’s been given a luxury makeover.
PUMA‘s technology, fabrics, logos, and ProFoam cushioning all feature on the shoe, while Balmain‘s logo can be seen on the tongue and premium Italian leather is added for a luxe feel.
The PUMA Teddy Jacket, reworked in leather and flocked cotton with a classic white, black, and red basketball-inspired theme also features. The rest of the collection consists of T-shirts, caps, a coach jacket, hoodies, and shorts all donned by Diggins-Smith and Kuzma.
Balmain and PUMA haven’t worked together since the duo’s boxing collaboration back in November 2019 that featured Cara Delevigne fronting the campaign.
The brand new Balmain x PUMA basketball collaboration is set to launch on the PUMA site on Saturday, February 18.
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