PUMA's Best Shoe Is Ready for Primetime
If you haven’t already noticed, PUMA is going hard on pushing its classic motocross-inspired sneakers. There’s already been a major wave of making the PUMA Mostro and Speedcat snakers relevant for 2024 fashions and the latter is the subject of a fashion-forward collaboration with Korean label OPEN YY.
With a detachable tongue that allows you to style the sneaker depending on your mood, the Speedcat OG is a sleek, low-top shoe very similar to the aforementioned Mostro, just a little more of a runner.
A teaser on Instagram says that OPEN YY's seasonally bright Speedcat sneaker will come in versatile colorways like black, beige, and light pink with metallic PUMA stripes on the sides. They'll launch March 23 on OPEN YY's website (along with thematic racing-inclined apparel), foretelling a wider release for new colorways of the Speedcat down the road.
With rubber soles and the detachable tongue revealing a semi-mesh paneled upper, the Speedcat is surprisingly versatile low-profile shoe already approved by famous folks aplenty.
Already, celebs like Emily Ratajkowski and A$AP Rocky have taken to PUMA's old-school racing styles and it’s only a matter of time before PUMA’s massive marketing push worldwide helps to make the once-archival sneakers mainstream again.
It's easy enough to see the appeal of the Speedcat, for one: they're easy to pair with trousers of all sorts, they're sporty enough to stand out but versatile enough to be worn in myriad contexts. The shoe's slight profile gives it a feminine edge that's offset by its innate sportiness, making for an intriguingly unusual sneaker.
Given its lengthy history — the Speedcat turns 25 in 2024 — you could even argue that as far as streetstyle sneakers go, the Speedcat might even be PUMA's most classic shoe.
Already in 2024, new, futuristic models of the Puma Mostro shoe are set to be released and there’s likely more where all this is coming from well into the rest of the year.
The motorsport trend goes well beyond low PUMA racing shoes, as more and more people are donning racing suits and big leather jackets and gloves well off the track. Some of these style icons might not even know how to drive. But since when has fashion been practical?
Leather jackets and knee pads aren’t for everyone, but the PUMA racing shoes are most definitely destined to be. Now it’s just about picking which of the classic models to make your own.
