Puma by Yasuhiro Mihara

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Puma by Yasuhiro Mihara is a wildly innovative footwear collection that simultaneously defines and transgresses the boundaries of sport and fashion. Mihara designs sneakers that look and feel sporty, but have a chic edge beyond the sportswear’s raw utility. True to form, the celebrated Tokyo designer has been taking Puma down the road to stylish high-quality footwear for more than nine years. Puma by Yasuhiro Mihara was born from a great collaboration that everyone hopes will last for a long time. Because the sneakers put forward by Mihara and Puma every season are as exciting to watch as they are to wear.

When Yasuhiro Mihara started his collaboration with Puma in 2000, he was already an important name in the urban and streetwear fashion. Mihara was born and raised on Kyushu Island, in the western part of Japan. He displayed an artful mind from an early age and later attended Tama Art University. It was in his college years when Mihara first started to design shoes. And by 1997 he had perfected an innovative personal style and had launched his own footwear label “Mihara Yasuhiro”. A year later, his collection was distributed to 50 premium outlets worldwide, making the newly found brand an international success.

In 1998, Mihara opened his first footwear store called SOSU (meaning “prime number”) in Aoyama, Tokyo. However, the Japanese designer hasn’t limited himself to footwear.  After establishing himself in the sneaker market, Mihara expanded his creative realm and began to design apparel for both men and women. The year 2000 meant a great leap forward for the Japanese designer. He began many collaborative projects, including the Puma by Yasuhiro Mihara line which was announced to the world at Premiere Classe Spring/Summer 2001. Today, Mihara continues with great success to showcase on the catwalk his own footwear and apparel collection as well as taking part in many innovative projects such as the design of Canon PowerShot G10 camera case in 2008.

Puma has set for Yasuhiro Mihara a challenging aim: “In respect to Puma’s technical knowledge and credit to their spirit, it is Mihara’s goal to create new sneakers. In fact it is his goal to create footwear that is neither a sneaker nor a leather shoe, footwear that looks beyond the concept of sport while staying real.”

Puma by Yasuhiro Mihara Collection - Camo2 Snake showcased at D-Mop Hong Kong.

Camo2 Snake showcased at D-Mop Hong Kong.

Indeed, Mihara has all the freedom of design he wants and he is involved in every stage of the manufacturing process: “They completely leave the work up to me. They don’t suggest things. First, I think of a theme, then I start drawing designs. The only thing they tell me is the deadline. Based on that deadline, I’ll make a schedule. After discussing the details in a video conference with Puma’s London office, I bring the final designs to a production team in Taiwan. I try to solve problems with the design that come up in the 3-D versions.”

The final product put forward by Puma by Yasuhiro Mihara is always a trendsetter. Psychedelic patterns, studs, rivet details and gold leather make your everyday sneaker a star of the streets. So if you want to walk in style and enjoy the benefits of a sport shoe, then Puma by Yasuhiro Mihara is for you. Get your pair over the web at DJPremium or other online stores.