Fenty x PUMA Returns With a Football-Inspired Sneaker

Following a five year hiatus, Rihanna’s Fenty x PUMA is back!

The sportswear-meets-luxury label, which officially launched back in 2015 with the release of the now-iconic Creeper silhouette, has been on pause since 2018 while Rihanna, the project’s creative director, grew Fenty Beauty, her beauty line, and Savage X Fenty, her lingerie label.

In September 2023, Rihanna’s Fenty x PUMA line finally returns with a bang, with the Bad Gal herself creative-directing the collection.

Meet the Fenty x PUMA Avanti shoe, a unisex sneaker that fuses the leather upper of the PUMA King football boot with the outsole of the label’s heritage running shoe, the Easy Rider. The Avanti itself was first issued by PUMA in 2001, though Rihanna has refined the silhouette for Fenty x PUMA’s debut drop.

The first Fenty x PUMA sneaker, slated to release on September 15, is a concoction born out of Rihanna’s love of football and indicative of the sport’s growing influence away from the pitch.

Rihanna’s interpretation of the classic PUMA King — a boot famously worn by the late Brazilian football legend, Pelé — sees the musician-turned-designer add her personal design language to the style, from the details of the leather to the gum of the outsole.

“I wanted to bring something iconic from the archives to the street,” said Rihanna. “The late great Pelé made the Avanti shoe so iconic.”

The Fenty x PUMA Avanti is the latest in a long list of recent football-fashion crossovers, boasting a fold over tongue — printed with a debossed and printed gold-foil Fenty and Puma Cat logo — similar to the ASICS x OTTO and Wales Bonner’s popular Samba.

The shoe’s gum outsole and leather footbed nods affords the sneaker an air of subtle luxury while its black and white colorway reflects the PUMA King’s perpetual relevance by channeling the boot’s original colorway.

But, if minimalist tones ain’t your thing, fear not: the Avanti will drop again in Fall 2023 with more colorways.