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It’s all about the mixtape. One of hip-hop’s most impactful mediums take the spotlight in Puma’s new collection celebrating 50 years of hip-hop.
Puma teamed with Roc Nation, Paper Planes co-founder Emory Jones and footwear designer Alexander Jones on its Mixtape collection, a limited sneaker and apparel drop paying homage to hip-hop history.
The collection’s star is the RS-XL sneaker ($130), which is available in yellow, white and grey colorways and designed around mixtape formats such as cassette tapes, CDs and digital playlists.
Each shoe in the collection features a “LGT Tag” (an NFC-powered chip from Legitimate) that you can scan to access a digital portal of exclusive content, weekly mixtape drops and “unfettered access to life behind the scenes as a Roc Nation artist,” according to a news release from Puma. There’s also unreleased music and more from Roc Nation included in the exclusive content.
Also featured in the collection, the Future Rider Cassette Tape Sneaker ($90), Classic MP3 Men’s Tee ($35), Classic Men’s Mixtape Track Jacket ($80) and matching shorts ($50).
With its Mixtape collection, Puma joins several other major brands in celebrating hip-hop’s milestone anniversary. Timberland dropped a hip-hop inspired version of its signature 6-inch boot earlier in the year, and Hennessy recently collaborated with Nas on a special bottle celebrating the 50th anniversary.
Next month, fans will gather in the Bronx for Hip-Hop 50 Live at Yankee Stadium, a star-studded tribute concert in hip-hop’s birthplace. The concert will feature performances from Run-DMC, EPMD, Ghostface Killah, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Eve, Lil’ Kim, Remy Ma, Trina, T.I., Fat Joe, Common, A$AP Ferg, Lupe Fiasco, Slick Rick, Kool Herc, Cindy Campbell, Grandmaster Caz, Kurtis Blow, Melle Mel, Roxanne Shante, Scorpio and the Sugar Hill Gang and more (click here for tickets).
And if you need something to wear, Puma’s Mixtape Collection is available at Footlocker, Champs Sports and Puma.com.
Shop the collection below.
For Y2K nostalgist, the RS-XL Disc Walkman sneaker takes it back to the days of mixtape CDs. The shoe features CD player decals on the side such as “skip,” “search” and “recall.”
Throwing it back even further, Puma’s RS-XL Cassette Tape sneaker is an ode to one of the genre’s earlier music mediums.
From analog to digital. Puma’s RS-XL Playlist Sneaker is an ode to the digital era with design elements like scroll wheels and download buttons.
