Heiko Desens Has a Jil Sander Obsession
Blame Puma for all the fashion and sport collaborations that saturate the market today. It was in 1998 when the company signed a deal with German minimalist designer Jil Sander to create a co-branded running shoe, marking the first time a performance sport company and a fashion house had teamed up.
That’s just one thing that sets Puma apart from its competitors, according to its global creative director Heiko Desens. As evidenced by its groundbreaking partnerships with celebrities such as Rihanna and Dua Lipa, the company remains willing to make unorthodox choices to position itself at the forefront of sports and style.
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“We consider ourselves a bit more of a playful brand among the big sportswear players,” Desens said. “We also have a stronger resonance with the female consumer. A lot of things we tackle have a different emotion and that’s what has allowed us to do more unexpected things, whether it’s avant-garde partners or different fashion brands. It has shaped our way and we still have the same approach.”
That will be evident this month when Rihanna and her Fenty brand will return to the Puma fold. The superstar entertainer partnered with the brand in 2014, serving as creative director for the womenswear line and then expanding into her own Fenty x Puma collection. In 2018, she ended that partnership and joined LVMH Mo?t Hennessy Louis Vuitton to start her own line, but that was put on hold. Earlier this year it was revealed that she would be returning to Puma.
“She brings along a great following of young female consumers,” Desens said. “We already had this momentum a couple of years ago, so this will revive that and underline our strengths in this market.”
While high-profile collaborations like this may get the most buzz, the company is still primarily focused on performance and technology, hallmarks of any successful sports brand. Right now, Desens said two of the key growth categories are in soccer boots and running shoes, which he characterized as “untapped opportunities for us.”
But successfully juggling performance and lifestyle is no easy task. Desens said since those early days with Jil Sander, Puma has established itself as a lifestyle business. But when it comes to performance, the rules today are different.
“It’s technology-based,” he said, which is “a bit of a new thing. Performance follows the athlete and the sports they’re doing.” And the demands are the same around the world. “There’s quite a universal approach,” he said.
Puma leans heavily on its athletes to identify what technologies will be needed for them to excel at their chosen sport. “You don’t just go out and look for innovation,” he said. “You go out and find out what they actually need. And that is defined by category.”
For runners, as an example, lightweight shoes with reengineered foam have become desirable and Puma’s innovation team seeks the right materials and engineering that will allow runners to perform at their best. “It’s more based on finding out what athletes need and then we go and find the solution instead of just going for innovations,” he said.
That being said, there is one area where the company does seek out innovation, and that’s in the field of sustainability.
“The big new innovations are actually happening in the sustainable field because it’s a new development,” he said, adding that Puma has a team of dedicated designers and researchers working in this realm. “They work to find better materials or how materials or products are built more sustainably.”
He said recycled or organic materials are “a given” now, so the “game changer” for the future will center around researching how products are built and the chemical formulas that are needed to create a more sustainable offering. One focus for the company is on creating a biodegradable product, which “doesn’t scream innovation, but behind the scenes is a highly innovative product.”
Searching for solutions, whether it’s in chemical compounds or fashion trends, is essential to remain at the forefront, Desens said. And it’s creative people in all areas of the company who will find the answers and move the business forward.
Since the beginning 75 years ago, Puma has been focused on footwear, which remains the largest part of the business. That encompasses everything from Usain Bolt’s track spike to Rihanna’s Creeper sneakers. “She almost rejuvenated the whole classic platform sneaker trend with the Creeper, going back six or seven years,” he said of Rihanna. And it led to the brand offering a whole collection of sneakers and sandals under the Mayze name. “It gave a lift to the business and started a massive global trend. This is probably one of our most successful franchises.”
But with any trend, there is a limited life cycle, prompting Puma to always search for the next big thing.
“At some point, you might need to come up with something different because the consumer has changed and walked away from some pieces. Some things can go on for years or even decades, but the new trends come our way and pick up momentum. That’s how our business goes.”
One category where Puma sees momentum building in the future is apparel. “We see apparel as a great opportunity for us,” he said. “While we have been doing extremely well in footwear and have a lot of innovation and sustainability there, we just invested in an apparel innovation team to be built next to our footwear team here at headquarters. We will also be investing in research specifically on the performance and sustainability side from an apparel point of view.”
As far as aesthetic, Desens said the last five to 10 years were defined by a “more restrospective look,” and Puma had success with archival tracksuits, sweatpants, hoodies and other classic sports items. But technology has now made its mark in the apparel world as well and he has seen technical apparel making more headway. “Footwear has been in that space already and now it’s happening in apparel,” he said.
He said the design team has begun to dabble in AI over the past couple of years and while there was initially a lot of nervousness about this new frontier, the teams have embraced it and are generating prototypes that they can use as a launching point for commercial products. “It’s not a demon, we’ve really made friends with AI,” he said. “It never creates a full product but it triggers ideas.”
Being open to trying something new can also be applied to the collaboration process. Desens said Puma has a team of people whose responsibility it is to identify the right partners for the brand. “It’s not just a fun playground anymore,” he said. “There’s a real commercial component to it.”
The goal is to find someone who “likes us as a brand and can impact the bigger picture at Puma. There’s a lot of pressure in the market on blockbuster collaborations, but we need to have real partnerships that feel right and make sense.”
So even though the Rihanna collaboration could easily have been seen as a blockbuster deal, Desens said her return to Puma was “more like a family affair than just a business transaction. It never feels like, ‘Here’s the queen, just do what she says.’ She always asks for feedback and there’s a real conversation to find the right product and solution.”
Other key partnerships include the Berlin-based street brand Ottolinger, which was not a big commercial success, but brought a new customer into the fold, and the Ami collection of “cool classic items” that launched during the pandemic and was an “incredible success because it was the right design for the right time.”
So is there someone on Desens’ wishlist with whom he’d like to collaborate in the future?
“It’s a personal thing and I’m not sure the company will like it, but I wish I could bring back Jil Sander herself,” he said of the legendary German designer, who has retired from fashion. “I’m a big fan of her style and there are very young people who weren’t even born when we launched our collaboration who ask about it, so it would be amazing.”
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