NemeN Looks to Motorsport and Military Wear for PUMA Collaboration
Founder Leonardo Fasolo explains the design process behind the capsule.
Italian label NemeN has linked up with PUMA for a new collection that takes inspiration from Formula 1 and military gear. Mixing these influences, the collection also brings NemeN’s technical innovation to PUMA’s heritage, with a particular focus on functional materials and PUMA’s Disc technology.
Covering both apparel and footwear, the stand-out item is the Centaur Mid Disc, which comes constructed from Neoprene in an all black colorway. Other features include Disc lacing technology and a holographic label on the tongue. For the apparel, NemeN has brought its expertise to a racing-inspired matching top and pants, while the capsule also features tees, hoodies and sweatshirts.
Speaking to HYPEBEAST about the launch, NemeN founder Leonardo Fasolo explained the various influences on the collection. “With PUMA, it’s impossible to overlook their amazing legacy of accomplishments within the world of motorsports, so we wanted to tap into that heritage to see if we could combine it with our expertise in realizing something new,” he said. “Both military and sportswear share many similar aspects in that they’re both driven a lot by utility and performance in their forms on functions. So for us it’s more about taking the best of various fields and creating something that’s more than just the sum of the parts.”
Puma
Puma
Puma
Puma
The design of the collection included work with PUMA’s lab in Turin, where the sportswear label designs and produces the suits worn by Formula 1 drivers. “We had the opportunity to visit and study them and we wanted to try to implement some of their approaches into the collection,” Fasolo explained. “For example the Sports Cat pro racing shoe is the embodiment of pure functionality, there’s no unnecessary extras, it’s all purely about function. With that as a foundation, we wanted to increase the performance aspect, by implementing some more technical fabrics and adding iconic PUMA components, like their Disc system.”
Take a look through the NemeN x PUMA collection in the gallery above. All of the pieces are available now via the PUMA web store and select stockists.
For more from PUMA, take a look at its recent Suede release.
