the Most Desirable Shoe of 2016(0)

How Rihanna and Puma Dreamed Up the Most Desirable Shoe of 2016

This year brought plenty of great shoe styles, but Rihanna’s Fenty Puma Creeper was the clear, absolute choice for Shoe of the Year. The sneaker had universal appeal to both men and women, and with the help of mega-star Rihanna’s celebrity platform, generated tremendous hype and strong global sales.

For Puma, bringing Rihanna on board as women’s creative director was a similarly obvious choice.

In 2014, Puma was in the process of a major rebranding. Olympic gold medal sprinter Usain Bolt was the most recognizable face of the Herzogenaurach, Germany- based, Kering-owned athletic company, and it became evident that Puma desperately needed a female face to embody its new sport-with-attitude direction.

Cue the brainstorming sessions. “We had all these names, and none of them made any sense,” said Adam Petrick, Puma’s global director of brand and marketing. “When we expanded the circle to entertainment and fashion, it was so clear who it needed to be. Rihanna exactly matched the brand values.”

As it turns out, it made a lot of sense on Rihanna’s side, too. The Grammy Award-winning singer, who is often lauded for her daring style, was interested in the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on the brand’s success. Rihanna and Puma announced their relationship in December 2014.

By the time of the first drop of the Creeper — a spin on Puma’s Basket silhouette with a creeper-style midsole — in September 2015, there was so much built-up anticipation that the shoes sold out in three hours.

The Creeper has continued to be a best-seller, and Rihanna’s partnership with Puma has expanded to include the release of a trainer, a faux-fur slide and two hot-ticket runway shows. For Puma, the collaboration has been a driving factor behind its rising sales recently. In the third quarter of 2016, footwear was its strongest category, with sales up 16.4 percent, thanks in large part to the Fenty line.

The magnitude of the Creeper’s success is not lost on Rihanna. “In my wildest dreams, I never would have imagined an honor like Shoe of the Year,” the star told Footwear News. “It means so much to me to make a mark like this in the shoe and sneaker industry and to have so many people share my love for the Creeper.”

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