Following the recent launch of the PUMA Mostro as part of the Mostro House takeover at Paris Fashion Week in January 2025, the brand has returned for yet another inspired collaboration. This time, PUMA has partnered with legendary designer Salehe Bembury for the PUMA X Salehe Bembury sneaker drop.
The partnership was announced as part of an event in the French capital. Footwear designer Salehe Bembury, known for his previous design contributions to Yeezy and Cole Haan, is also the Vice President of Sneakers and Men’s Footwear at Versace in Milan.
For their first collaboration, guests were immersed in a world of biomorphic beauty and engineered imagination for the release of the PUMA Velum. The sneaker is Bembury’s first lifestyle sneaker in partnership with PUMA and features the proprietary NITROFOAM™ midsole.
Just one look at the PUMA Velum and it’s easy to see Salehe Bembury’s touch, as it was also present in his other collabs with Crocs, New Balance and even Versace. His new design adds organic shapes to the PUMA technology to create a future-retro sort of look.
The PUMA x Salehe Bembury collaboration feels familiar, reminiscent of the Calibrate Runner sneaker with XETIC midsole from 2020. It’s been a long time coming with PUMA’s experimental design, which has finally come to fruition in the Velum sneaker. Its aesthetic is like that of a living organism, evolving with each new glance and angle it’s perceived from.
The immersive event showcased plenty of the Velum’s journey from concept to a tangible sneaker. It was meant to emphasise the universe where nature and machine coexist in harmony. The event location was set up as a futuristic lab, with the Velum viewed as an artefact under observation. As such, the Velum spills over the entire sneaker environment with its organic textures.
The first pop-up was opened to the public on 25 June 2025, with only 100 pre-release pairs of the PUMA x Salehe Bembury Velum made available. Bembury was also present at the event and signed the first pairs of his new PUMA collaboration. The sneaker went on sale in Europe and the US from 28 June. We’re still awaiting further details from PUMA South Africa on its release in South Africa in the following weeks.
