June Ambrose To Step Down as Creative Director of PUMA Hoops
Ambrose became the successor to Jay-Z in the role in 2020.
June Ambrose will be leaving her post as the Creative Director of PUMA Hoops when her contract expires at the end of the year, Business of Fashion reported first.
The costume designer and stylist – whose portfolio of work spans hip-hop artists and music videos to working at competitor adidas – had taken the reins from former creative director Jay-Z in 2020 after the rapper introduced Ambrose to PUMA CEO Bjørn Gulden and PUMA Marketing Director Adam Petrick, recommending her for the position.
During her three-year tenure at PUMA’s basketball division, Ambrose helmed the brand’s first-ever first women’s basketball line, a 25-piece collection called High Court, in December 2021. The following year, she led the creative direction of PUMA’s return to New York Fashion Week in September 2022, where the brand showcased for the first time since its collaborative runway with Fenty in 2017.
“When you look at the collection, you can see some of the inspirations from my contributions to the fashion industry, as well as the contributions from other like-minded thinkers in the industry,” Ambrose told Hypebeast about the landmark collection. “This is a cultural conversation that we’re communicating – that we are the founding fathers of attitude, ideas, style and texture. It’s a part of what I did in the music video form and the performing arts space, and we’re bringing a culmination of that to the runway.”
Ambrose was responsible for PUMA’s spotlighting of WNBA athletes in its basketball campaigns and designed two sneakers for star player Breanna Stewart. She also released several collections with PUMA in collaboration with her personal, self-titled brand.
Over the years, Ambrose’s role expanded beyond basketball, touching divisions throughout the company. She played a major role in PUMA’s expansion into racecar driving, namely F1, helping the brand to secure a collaboration with Scuderia Ferrari just earlier this year. Under Ambrose, PUMA and F1’s partnership went on to hire A$AP Rocky as its creative director in October.
“I was able to visually disrupt what the genre of music looked like and I saw a white space to do the same thing in the world of sport,” Ambrose said to BoF about her decision to step down. “I set out to create something that at the time was new and fresh — product that was both performance and lifestyle at the same time.”
