THE LOTTERY
2008 - NO MAS NYC
Writer
Puma wanted to reintroduce their “First Round” model by collaborating with cool street-wear brands such as No Mas and Alife.
So, we decided to create an Art show around the NBA Draft, in honor of the shoes’ moniker, that would coincide with the date of release of the limited edition (48) sneakers.
We focused on the NBA Lottery picks from 1985, when it started, to 1995, when the NBA expanded to Canada. We commissioned 105 handmade portraits to artist Yan Kallen. who was given free range to treat all pictures of players with the colors of the team that originally selected them.
The most interesting part of the draft is always looking back and seeing how high, or low, some players were placed. Some players, like Len Bias of the university of Maryland died of cocaine overdose without ever having worn the Celtics jersey he was supposed to wear.
The great expectations of a Draft and the outcome is what makes sports great. The concept was interesting and offered us some exposure but we were definitely not ready for the reaction.
THE RESULT
What we thought was going to be a small gathering, of mostly sports fans and Sneakerheads, turned out to be Puma’s greatest collaboration success up to that point.
The brand was so happy with the original release and the turnout of hundreds of fans that they wanted a bigger bang. They asked us to create four new models to be released in the following months in each one of their bigger markets.
Which we did, creating shoes inspired by the New York Knicks, The Boston Celtics, The Seattle Supersonics and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Once again all pairs were scooped within hours, and helped Puma really start focusing some of their energy back into basketball retro releases.
