The PUMA Velum Bembury Calls a Mr. Potato Head Exercise

Salehe Bembury describes his entire PUMA project as a Mr. Potato Head exercise. He means it as a method rather than a put-down. The Velum NITRO that arrived in Magenta Gleam and Dusky Gray on February 7, 2026 is that method at its clearest, and it is also the pair this site had filed under the wrong year, in the wrong tense, and sold at the wrong place.

The Velum is Bembury’s first lifestyle silhouette with PUMA, and it did not arrive the way collaborations usually do. PUMA put it out in Paris on June 25, 2025 as a hundred pairs at a pop-up on Rue Saint Gilles, with Bembury there in person. The first global release came three months later with the Yams and Mahana colorways. By the time this magenta pair landed, the Velum was already on its third public outing. Underneath it sits NITROFOAM, PUMA’s nitrogen-infused midsole foam, which the brand has spent several years pushing through its running line and which gives the shoe a performance argument rather than a decorative one.

PUMA describes the upper as lightweight engineered mesh under a sculptural printed cage, and calls that cage 5D-printed. Every outlet that covered the shoe wrote 3D-printed, which is what it is. Five dimensions is not a manufacturing process, it is a press release getting excited. The build itself is unusual: magenta mesh, dark grey heat-welded overlays, a brown NITROFOAM midsole and a blue Formstrip fragmented along the lateral side. The traction pattern is a fingerprint, which is Bembury’s Spunge motif, so his own brand mark is living on somebody else’s shoe. PUMA’s color name is Magenta Gleam and Dusky Gray. Rhubarb is the nickname the marketing used, and it is the better description.

The Mr. Potato Head line is worth taking seriously because it names something most designer collaborations pretend is not happening. Bembury’s stated approach is to take parts that already exist inside PUMA and rearrange them with his own sensibility rather than draw a shoe from nothing. He has also said the most important element is form, and that plenty of brands do not manage it. That is a working designer describing his constraints accurately, and it explains why his PUMA output holds together across basketball and lifestyle while other collaborators produce one good shoe and four graphics packages. It is also worth naming what he is not. Bembury holds no title at PUMA. No source, including PUMA’s own announcement, gives him one. He is a partner, and the arrangement started in basketball, with the PUMA Hoops deal announced in July 2024 and the Hali 1 for Tyrese Haliburton that followed.

The résumé behind that is long and mostly not in sneakers. Bembury grew up in Tribeca, studied industrial design at Syracuse, and took his first job at Payless. He joined Cole Haan in 2011 and worked on the LunarGrand, spent time at the menswear startup Greats, then landed at Yeezy in 2015 for Seasons 3 and 4. He pitched Versace over LinkedIn in 2017 and left three years later as Vice President of Sneakers and Men’s Footwear, having built the Chain Reaction. Footwear News named him Designer of the Year in 2020. Spunge, his own brand, was announced in January 2021.

Retail was $160, which is where the whole Velum line sits. The Akita in June and both Velum 2 colorways in September carried the same number. That consistency matters more than it sounds. A collaborator who holds one price across five drops is being positioned as a line rather than an event. The market response was mixed rather than frantic. Bodega marked this pair down from $160 to $128 before it sold through, which says the magenta did not move at full price everywhere.

The Salehe Bembury x PUMA Velum NITRO in Magenta Gleam and Dusky Gray carries style code 313604-01 and retailed at $160. It released Saturday, February 7, 2026, with an early drop on salehebembury.com two days ahead. Our earlier version of this post said it was exclusive to CNCPTS. It was not. PUMA’s own announcement lists PUMA.com, PUMA flagship stores and selected PUMA stockists, and CNCPTS was one of those stockists rather than the only one. The pair is gone at retail, so the style code is what will find it at eBay, GOAT and StockX, and the Velum 2 NITRO is the current in-line option.

Source: Cncpts

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The Sneakers Team

The Sneakers Team is the editorial desk behind becausesneakers, founded and edited by Nick Engvall. Nick has spent more than two decades in the sneaker industry. He built the original Eastbay Blog, led the first dedicated sneaker team at Complex, ran the first UGC and seeding programs at Finish Line, was employee number nine at StockX, and served as Senior Director at Stadium Goods. He hosts the Sneaker History podcast, and his first book, Small Luxuries: Sneakers, arrives in October 2026 from Motorbooks. Release details on this site are checked against the brand's own product information before publication, and anything we cannot confirm is labelled rather than stated.

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