PUMA Enlists Trophy Hunting for a Uniform-Inspired Collaboration

Trophy Hunting, a Black, AAPI and Latinx-owned sportswear label, has revealed its first-ever collaboration with PUMA. Thanks to an assist from the latter brand’s Emory Jones and June Ambrose, Trophy Hunting’s Dustin Canalin and Kari Cruz were able to open PUMA’s archives to reinvigorate 12 pieces from the sportswear powerhouse’s history.

At the crux of the collection, Canalin and Cruz looked to champion personal experiences with uniforms — those that Cruz wore to school while growing up in the Bronx, those that passersby sport in the New York borough, and those that athletes wear professionally. Gold hardware plays a key role across the range, nodding to the “gleam of a trophy,” per the collaborator’s moniker, and the unofficial uniform of women in the Bronx. In practice, bamboo-shaped hoops appear on the zipper-pulls of the Full-Zip Reversible Track Jacket, and gold nameplates appear on the backs of outerwear and on the laces of footwear.

The collection’s hero is a fully-reversible varsity jacket, which is made from high-end satin and lined with a faux-fur Duck Camo print. Additionally, the range features a basketball-inspired performance skirt, biker shorts and leggings.

Elsewhere, the lineup houses several updated takes on PUMA’s signature sneakers: The Clyde All-Pro, The Slipstream and The Suede. The Clyde All-Pro now features a removable gold anklet, as well as a streamlined upper that takes cues from Trophy Hunting’s Slipstream Lifestyle shoe. The Suede, meanwhile, adopts Tropy Hunting’s classic Forest Green tone, and the Slipstream cites ’80s basketball sneakers as its source.

“As a Dominican-American, NYC raised woman, my creative work often pulls from my roots and upbringing in The Bronx,” said Trophy Hunting’s Kari Cruz. “For over a decade I have worked extensively on men’s streetwear and basketball brands-and there’s always been an erasure of women’s design and creative contributions.”

Cruz added, “This collection is an extremely personal and intentional effort to show that we’ve always existed in these spaces and won’t be written out of the story. It’s my love letter to the girls ‘from around the way’ who won’t be excluded from the rooms they’re not typically invited into.”

The PUMA x Trophy Hunting collaboration will launch online on November 9. Prices range from $96 USD to $196 USD. Take a closer look at the collection in the gallery above.

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