With a 20-year hiatus looming in the not so distant shadow, PUMA this week announced the re-emergence of its basketball category. Igniting this commitment to basketball with a lifetime contract for Walt Clyde Frazier and three key signings — DeAndre Ayton, Marvin Bagley III and Zhaire Smith — PUMA also announced Monday that rapper and business mogul Jay Z would work in a presidential capacity for the newly revived PUMA Basketball.
PUMA, late afternoon on Monday, would clarify Jay Z’s role with greater specificity, as Adam Petrick, Global Director of Marketing and Brand for PUMA, stated that “I referred to him (earlier) today by an informal designation.”
Jay Z will officially take on the role of Creative Director with PUMA Basketball.
In this capacity Shawn “Jay Z” Carter will lead brand creative direction for marketing campaigns while equally lending his voice to product creation and rollout.
Jay Z, of course, has already been working with PUMA for sometime now. His sports agency, Roc Nation Sports — which houses clients from all major sporting leagues — features several athletes that are currently endorseed by PUMA. The overarching Roc Nation umbrella also manages entertainers like Rihanna and Big Sean, both of which have similar deals with the German company.
Jay Z’s creative vision has long been championed for its striking aesthetics and cultural depth. Just last week his international tour and accompanying set design with wife Beyoncé generated wide praise. Moreover, a visual for their new joint album, Everything is Love, shot at the Louvre in Paris, France, is also a heavily trending cultural moment. Carter, though not the sole visionary for those projects, is close if not intimately affiliated. This speaks to his well-documented hold on cultural influence.
“It’s clear that we’re looking at basketball through the lens of culture, and thinking about the fashion of basketball, the music of basketball — all the aspects of culture around basketball, all the aspects of culture around basketball as much as the on-court presence that we will have,” Petrick said.
