Herzogenaurach, Germany, September 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Sports company PUMA has unveiled its first metaverse website experience, called Black Station, featuring exclusive NFTs with limited-edition redeemable physical sneakers, as part of its ‘FUTROGRADE’ show during Spring Fashion Week. New York.
NITRO NFRNO and NITRO Fastroid Sneakers, debuting at NYFW
PUMA Black Station has been envisioned as an immersive and interactive place to experience the future of the brand. As an ever-evolving blank 3D canvas, Black Station will become a dynamic destination to visit, connecting consumers with various web3 activations that will emerge over the course of the next year and beyond.
“Twenty years ago, Black Station was PUMA’s home for our most innovative fashion designs,” said adam petrickPUMA boss brand official. “Given the boundaries we are pushing from a digital and product design standpoint, it seemed fitting to bring back Black Station as a new portal for digital exploration across fashion, sports performance, our legacy classics and the innovation”.
The experience begins as visitors enter a hyper-realistic digital lobby space with three separate portals. The first two portals, accessible start September 7thwill feature exclusive never-before-seen Nitro NFRNO and Nitro Fastroid sneakers tied to PUMA’s recent NFT Nitropass mint.
Those who minted a Nitropass can receive two NFTs: one tied to physical products and one that unlocks a custom experience tied to their chosen shoe. After the Futrograde show, minters can claim their physical sneakers by burning their NFT claimed for the product. This marks uncharted territory for the brand in the web3 space, establishing its first PUMA-owned NFT that links digital design with real-life physical products for consumers.
For digital product design, PUMA encouraged its in-house designers to push the creative boundaries to imagine what a 3D digital sneaker might look like. “Our team of designers took a lot of liberties in envisioning these shoe styles. We told them the sky is the limit. As a result, we were able to tap into their creativity without the typical confines and limitations of our shoe production process,” he said. Heiko Desens, Global Creative Director and Head of Innovation. “What’s just as impressive as the actual designs is the fact that we were able to work with development to bring these stunning designs to life.”
The shoes recontextualize iconic PUMA characteristics through bold and innovative designs. Fastroid takes a performance tech silhouette to the extreme with exaggerated volumes of Nitro foam in high-impact gradient hues. With “sport is art” as its guiding ambition, NFRNO appears as a hybrid collision of past and future, drawing inspiration from obscure archival styles to arrive at a multi-part molded construction.
Black Station’s third portal will function as the entrance to the NYFW digital metaverse fashion show. Visitors will be immersed in an abstracted interactive space with point cloud style effects. They will go through a digital adaptation of the exhibition, where visitors will be able to interact with the pieces of the collection.
Developed by creative venture company FTR, the Black Station metaverse is built using Unreal Engine 5 to produce state-of-the-art graphics.
David StamatisExecutive Creative Director and Partner at FTR, explains: “We are dedicated to bringing great creative ideas to life through an immersive experience, technology and community. This project, and our partner in PUMA, gave us agency and confidence to move forward into the unknown.” and testing how these creative components can come together to innovate storytelling around product, fashion and brand. Creating a truly fictional experience has opened our eyes to the immense opportunity for brands in the future.”
Visitors can enter PUMA’s Black Station experience at blackstation.puma.com. There is a limited number of NFTs and, subsequently, exclusive sneakers. Visit PUMA’s discord page for more information on the project.
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PUMA is one of the world’s leading sports brands that designs, develops, sells and markets footwear, apparel and accessories. For more than 70 years, PUMA has tirelessly advanced sport and culture by creating fast products for the world’s fastest athletes. PUMA offers performance and sport-inspired lifestyle products in categories such as soccer, running and training, basketball, golf and motorsports. Collaborate with renowned designers and brands to bring sports influences to street culture and fashion. The PUMA Group owns the PUMA, Cobra Golf and stichd brands. The company distributes its products in more than 120 countries, employs around 16,000 people worldwide and is headquartered in Herzogenaurach/Germany.
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