Good morning, friends! Welcome back to The Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for reading today. I appreciate you giving me a bit of your time.
Hope your weekend was nice! Hope everyone on the East Coast in the US is enjoying the snow to some degree. I still need to shovel my sidewalk. It’s likely all ice by now, so please, wish me luck. Going to put these On x REI x Beams boots to work.
Quick hits:
Alright. Let’s dive in.
Puma’s New Home
Puma CEO Arthur Hoeld has made it clear that his main objective is to return the brand to its status as one of the unquestioned top three sportswear brands in the world alongside Nike and Adidas.
Anta just made that a lot easier to accomplish.
The news: Chinese sportswear brand Anta announced on Tuesday morning that it’d finally come to an agreement with France’s Pinault family to purchase the group’s 29 percent stake in Puma, making it the majority shareholder of the German sportswear company.
Reuters first reported that Anta made an offer to the Pinaults for Puma in early January. Here we are later, and a deal is officially in place.
- Anta is paying $1.8 billion in cash for 43 million shares of Puma, according to the company’s stock exchange filing on the transaction.
- The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. Anta is seeking seats on Puma’s board of directors once the transaction is finalised.
The results: This move has been a long time coming. The writing was on the wall the very moment the Pinaults looked into the possibility of selling their stake in Puma late last year. For the French family, it was clear that the company wasn’t part of any future plans. They just needed to find the right buyer, and they finally did.
The big deal: Mergers and acquisitions happen all the time, but it’s not every day that you see a company like Puma being moved. It really doesn’t get much bigger than this. The brand is at a low point now, but it’s one of the most notable sportswear companies in the world. It comes with nearly 80 years of history behind it.
Why that matters: That history and heritage is exactly why Anta was so keen on acquiring Puma in the first place. It desperately wanted that.
- Puma fits neatly into Anta’s three-year global multi-brand strategy, launched in 2023.
- Anta’s goal has been to acquire international sportswear companies and use its brands to juice its revenue to make it the leader in sportswear marketshare in China by 2025 and put it on par with the sportswear industry’s global leaders by 2030.
- Anta already acquired the likes of Amer Sports (which owns brands like Arc’teryx and Salomon), Fila, Descente and Kolon Sport.
Puma seems to be the final piece to Anta’s puzzle here.
The big winners in this have to be Puma’s investors. You’ve got to feel good about the spot the brand is in. This certainly isn’t the pie-in-the-sky Adidas acquisition that some dreamed about, but that was never realistic in the first place. Not only was Anta the more feasible option, but it also might be the best one.
Here’s why: Anta has made clear that it wants to let Puma cook. The company said it plans on preserving Puma’s “strong brand identity and heritage” following the acquisition, meaning that it won’t look to do what Adidas did to Reebok years ago when it pigeonholed the brand into training and lifestyle. We’ll see if that remains true long term, but it’s at least good to hear for now.
On top of that, Puma now gets deeper access to the Chinese market — a marketplace that Western companies have failed to connect with in recent years, as the population has shifted away from buying international brands and prioritising local companies.
- Just ask Nike how tough it’s been to succeed in China. The company just announced its sixth consecutive quarter of decline in the region in December.
- Meanwhile, Amer Sports (an Anta-owned brand) has seen year-to-year success in China, to the tune of a 47 percent jump in revenue in its third quarter.
It’s reasonable to think that Puma will now start to see some of that success, too. That would be a major boost for its business.
The bottom line: Maybe this isn’t how most Puma thought would get back into the top three conversation, but that’s certainly where it’s landed — even if it is under the Anta umbrella.
A win is a win. Right?
Fashion’s Big Game
Last year’s Super Bowl was filled with big fashion moments, from Kendrick Lamar’s captivating halftime show performance to the league’s first Super Bowl red carpet preshow and everything in between. The event generated $1.1 billion in media impact value, according to Launchmetrics.
There’s a chance that this year’s game — headlined by the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots — could go even bigger.
What’s changed: The NFL has! The league took its first steps into the fashion industry last year, hiring its first full-time fashion editor, Kyle Smith. It dip its toes in the water during its 2024-25 season behind Smith’s leadership on the fashion front. This year, it’s diving in, forging large-scale partnerships with brands like Abercrombie & Fitch and Breitling.
The league is set to leverage those partners in different ways at the Super Bowl.
- The NFL is hosting a fashion show with Abercrombie & Fitch on the eve of the Super Bowl. Smith announced the event to Vogue.
- The league is also hosting its NFL Honors award ceremony, where it’ll give out Breitling watches to the league’s award winners — that includes the NFL’s MVP award, which is its most prestigious.
And then there’s Bad Bunny’s halftime show. There are lots of fashion-conscious pop stars out there, but I’m not sure there’s one better at creating a moment than Bad Bunny. Every brand should be doing whatever it takes to get in on sharing that spotlight with him. It’ll be extremely bright.
- Kendrick Lamar generated $217.3 million in MIV during last year’s halftime show, per Launchmetrics. Nike received $3.5 million of that. Celine saw $4.6 million and Martine Rose saw $2.6 million.
- Just the mere thought of Bad Bunny’s outfit choice is already creating quite a bit of buzz. It’s since been shut down, but the conjecture alone shows you how big of a moment this is going to be.
What else: There are also several of things happening on the periphery that could provide interesting moments.
- The GQ Bowl is back and it looks like Thom Browne will be debuting its Fall 2026 collection at the event.
- Taylor Swift might not be at the game this year, but the WAG angle is still there with star rapper Cardi B, who will be there rooting for her boyfriend in New England Patriots star Stefon Diggs. She’s always good for a big moment or two.
The bottom line: Fashion and football have come together in major ways throughout this year, but the concentrated effort here from the NFL should make this the league’s biggest moment in the industry yet.
Jerry Lorenzo Is Back in Nike
Jerry Lorenzo was seen at Paris Fashion Week over the weekend sporting Nike’s new Jacquemus Moon Shoe collaboration.
- He posted a picture on Instagram of himself wearing a black Balenciaga sweatsuit and an overcoat, sporting the bright red kicks.
- The post’s caption read “same fit, new kicks.”
The read: That caption was a clear nod to the end of his deal with Adidas. Everything from that caption to the way Lorenzo’s outfit was put together is supposed to bring your attention to his shoes. This wasn’t just a photo — it was a statement. Like Stephen Curry, Lorenzo is a sneaker free agent who can wear what he wants now as he searches for new partners. First up? Nike.
Asking the question: Is it too late to run things back for Fear of God and Nike? That probably sounds ridiculous at first, given how the two sides left the table. But coming back together makes sense right now.
- Lorenzo is a free agent looking to make his mark by bridging the gap between fashion and sports. He’s made clear over and over that he’s most interested in product that is functional, but is still fashionable.
- Meanwhile, Nike is in a space where it’s recentring sports at the core of its business again. The brand continues to look for ways to heat things up. A reunion with Lorenzo could bring a bit of flair to the process.
Be smart: Fashion reunions aren’t necessarily the norm, but they’re not unprecedented either. Jeremy Scott returned to Adidas, for example, after being away from the brand for years following an early collaboration. I don’t see a good reason why a Lorenzo reunion would be out of the question here.
New Balance Gets Weird… Again
The Boston brand, best known for its dad shoes, had one of the best moments of 2025 when it ushered in the sneaker loafer trend. The New Balance 1906L was one of the year’s most talked-about silhouettes early on.
What’s next: It looks like the brand is going for a similar moment in 2026 — this time with a moccasin instead of a loafer. Photos of the brand’s new 1890a surfaced online over the weekend after an appearance at Paris Fashion Week.
- The shoe appeared in three distinct colourways — forest green, grey and cream.
- They also appear to be made with a range of materials, including mesh, leather and suede.
- It seems to use the same tooling from the New Balance 1890 sneaker, which rapper Action Bronson collaborated with the brand on over the weekend.
Flashback: This probably isn’t the first time you’ve seen this shoe. It first appeared online last summer when a snakeskin colourway leaked.
The big picture: Weird shoes are still having their moment. You’ve got Nike making tabi flats with Skims and Kim Kardashian, Crocs is launching brick clogs in collaboration with Lego, New Balance is dropping mocs. Experimental footwear just won’t go away.
I keep talking about the end of sneakers and casualisation. I don’t think this is quite that — but it isn’t lost on me how much interest some of these wilder models get from consumers. Keep an eye on this for 2026.
What’s Droppin’, Bruh?
This is a dedicated section detailing upcoming sneaker releases for the week, and sometimes other interesting drops I think you might care about.
Thanks for reading, gang!
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, reach out to me via email at michael.sykes@businessoffashion.com or shoot me a message @MikeDSykes via socials.
Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
