PUMA has been out of basketball for twenty years. In 2018, they wanted back in. Our task was to develop a PUMA Hoops challenger brand — from scratch. The mission: put PUMA back at the center of basketball conversation, culture, and creativity. PUMA Basketball meet PUMA Hoops.

We had to build a following from nothing. Unlike our competitors, we didn’t have shiny athlete photography or A-List celebrity endorsements to lean on. Instead, we turned the brand over to the fans—to hoops culture itself. Our fans shot our campaigns with disposable cameras. We owned the haters, and literally ate the hate (twice). And we caught a few Cease and Desist letters along the way (three). The way to solidify our role as a culture-first brand was by finding ways to inject product into conversations that are more than just performance stories. So we amplify voices and build campaigns from DMs (literally). We keep it scrappy. Lo Fi. If it’s weird, we post it. If no one else would do it, we post it.

Puma Hoops social extended from the larger Puma Hoops Strategy: “Give Them The Keys.” A platform that was based on putting our target audience in the driver's seat. We call them Generation Hustle. At a range of 16-24 years old, they’re living in a world that isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Nothing’s waiting up for them. They have to make it happen. That’s why they’re teaching themselves everything, channeling their creativity and asking permission from no one.

Enter @PUMAHoops. A platform where unscripted, access-granting content is as fast and un-precious as the fans who consume it.

Our visual language exists in a constant state of flux. We didn’t have a catalog of shiny photography, decades of A-List athlete endorsements, nor the budget. We had a plan: Asymmetric warfare. We reinvent and experiment with a diverse toolkit of lo-fi collage, meme-culture, bad photoshop and poorly hand-drawn PUMA brand assets. Completely breaking any existing “Puma brand guidelines.” Basketball culture breaks boundaries more than any sport. We became as fast-moving and un-precious as our players, fans, and Hoops itself. Instead of trying to reign them into our “Puma” world, we re-established a brand that amplifies theirs.

We’re growing.... Quickly.

Our monthly growth rate is 7%.

@PumaHOOPS Twitter Engagement Rate: 1.95%

Our competitors: 0.02%-0.09%

@PumaHOOPS Instagram Engagement Rate: 3.8%

Our competitors: 0.61% - 1.53%