A few weeks back, PUMA announced its partnership with First Mile with a collaboration that highlighted the brand’s focus on sustainability with a collection made from recycled plastic. This week, PUMA is back to enforce its commitment to the strategy announcing its partnership with the BA Fashion course at London-based design school, Central Saint Martins. The PUMA X Central Saint Martins collection explores more sustainable technologies in textile manufacturing, launched as part of the Day Zero collection.
The collection was inspired by the drought that hit Cape Town, which forced the government to declare a “day zero” on which the city’s water supply would be cut. To emphasise the connection to the region, the collection features the map of Cape Town across the footwear and apparel from the drop.
With the First Mile collection, PUMA focused on manufacturing materials and technologies to create a sustainable process for future products. With the latest Day Zero collection, PUMA implemented new techniques for cutting edge dyeing technologies – such as Dope Dye – eliminating a step from the overall process using less energy, water and chemicals as a result. Further to this, the process also streamlined the digital printing of logos onto the fabric, further reducing the use of chemicals and water. Depending on the type of product, the sustainable process for the Day Zero collection was improved by up to 17.4%. With the experimental collection a success in the form of the newly created process, PUMA will start to roll out the technologies and techniques to other parts of its product range. With more than 13 billion litres of water saved in 2019 thanks to improvements in its manufacturing processes, PUMA aims to improve this even further with new and sustainable techniques for its products.
The collection features two sneakers from the PUMA archives, including the Future Rider Day Zero and RS-X³. The RS-X³ features a black mesh upper with a graphic map of Cape Town’s water usage through its neon stitching. The sneaker also includes a bungee lacing system and forefoot overlay. With pops of bold colours across the silhouette, it’s matched against the bold TPU pieces embedded with the lightweight midsole. The Future Rider also features a mesh upper, which is fortified with suede and leather overlays providing a great mix of materials. In addition, the same bungee lacing system is featured on the sneaker in neon green, providing a midfoot lockdown. The futuristic design meets traditional in the form of the foam midsole, based on 80s running shoes.
In addition to the reduced chemicals and water throughout its manufacturing processes, PUMA is looking beyond the production cycle by implementing new ways to make marketing more sustainable. As part of the Day Zero campaign, the brand created digital samples from Dutch digital fashion house The Fabricant, which is evident through the imagery produced.
The PUMA X Central Saint Martins “Day Zero” collection is set to drop on 19 March 2020. The collection will be available at PUMA stores around the country, as well as online at PUMA.com and various retailers. The Future Rider Day Zero and RS-X³ will both retail for R2,199, while the AOP Top will retail for R1099 and the AOP Leggings for R899.
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