Puma’s Paris Slipstream Takeover is pushing basketball culture back into Europe

Ahead of Paris fashion week, Puma launched its highly anticipated Slipstream BBall silhouette shoe through its show-stopping live basketball exhibition event in partnership with America’s beloved Charlotte Hornets basketball player Lamello Ball. 

On June 8th, Forever Slipstream opened its green-hazed two-story doors to basketball enthusiasts and sneakerhead influencers across the globe. Live music, cocktails, street food, and the best Parisian street fashion commingled within the venue’s basketball-curated court-inspired set and slipstream shoe museum. The evening jumped off with a performance by basketball freestyle champion Brisco, followed by an appearance by the Hornets Starr Melo before ending with a series of mixes inspired by basketball culture. 

Puma’s initiation of this European basketball event should not be trivialized or overlooked. Though basketball is famously synonymous with US black street culture due to the backgrounds of the sport’s most iconic NBA players – Kobe Byrant, Lebron James, Micheal Jordan, Magic Johnson, and many more it’s easy to forget that basketball is the world’s second most watched sport in certain European countries. Its audience is continually growing through trending celebrity courtside reactions, i.e., Drake’s Best Basketball reactions; through the sport’s accessibility, affordability, and easiness to understand games rules. Not forgetting, basket references in music have also increased awareness of the sport, i.e., Jay-Z and Kanye’s ‘N*ggas in Paris’ (2011), Drake’s ‘Non-stop’ (2018) and J Cole’s ‘Return of Simba’ (2011) are a few notable mentions that validate the sport indeed is a big deal.

Overall, Puma’s Forever Slipstream event and Bball silhouette successfully reminded Europe of basketball’s significance in setting the pace for trends in fashion, music, arts, and culture is not one to be forgotten but recognised and enjoyed by all in this generation globally. 

You can shop for the new Slipstream silhouette here.

Discover more from GUAP’s Arts and Culture Section here.