The last few releases of the Puma Clyde Court have taken on serious problems. The shoe above named the #Reform via its colors represent, “Continuing PUMA’s #REFORM campaign, the Clyde Court #REFORM is inspired by our commitment to support athletes, artists and advocates who are pushing for social change, such as our Team Reform Captains Tommie Smith, who fights for universal equality and Meek Mill, who aims to change the criminal justice system.”
The Puma “Peace on Earth” (above) delivered funds to the Trayvon Martin Foundation. The brand is making an active play to display social activism via footwear. With Nike’s “Equality and Just Do It” campaigns and analysts everywhere stating that brands have to stake a stand, there is an interesting game being played. I used the word ‘game’ intentionally because Nike may use athletes and black bodies to promote and build their business, but like all sneaker companies diversity doesn’t include Black bodies in the C suite.
Puma has done a remarkable job of reconnecting with heritage athletes like Tommie Smith and Walt Frazier. They have realigned themselves with Meek Mill and placed Jay Z in a powerful position, but true advancement on behalf of those not in a position to help themselves starts with actual actions that display a dedication to inclusion.
Here is the Corporate Governance page on Puma:
https://about.puma.com/en/investor-relations/corporate-governance
and the management page:
https://about.puma.com/en/this-is-puma/our-management
and here is a search page on LinkedIn for you to browse for Black faces:
https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?facetCurrentCompany=%5B%22165597%22%5D
Basketball is primarily a Black sport, but the fastest growing place for basketball isn’t in the U.S; it’s in China. I understand that conquering the location that is at the heart of basketball is a requirement for growth. If the Black community gets behind a product those are dollars that are capable of building a company’s momentum. The Black dollar is power. Nike knows this which is why they cater to the Black dollar in moments of confrontation to show their progressiveness. When the reality is diversity at Nike in the C Suite and other areas doesn’t include Black people.
For Nike, adidas and Many Brands, Diversity Appears to Place Gender Before Color
Puma has launched a new category after 20 years away from the game. With all of the athletes and VPs of different categories that moved through various companies, they chose rappers and athletes to be the faces, but went with the same old same as the head of the category. While most people probably don’t think about how important it is to show diversity, the result is in sales and acceptance. I haven’t seen people rocking Puma Clyde Disrupts and while it’s nice that Puma is bringing much needed attention to Black issues maybe #reform should be for your interior first as opposed to the tactic to sell a few pair of kicks. Here is Puma Basketball on LinkedIn: