Alien, pointed, asymmetrical. Because the history of the PUMA Mostro is a winning path made of unexpected events and risks.

25 years old and still going strong. The PUMA Mostro are now the emblem of an era, that of the beginning of the millennium, now back in fashion with incredible and predictable force. The power of the archive. When they first appeared on the market in 1999, for no reason did they arouse immediate empathy, on the contrary. They were alien sneakers that were not in line with current taste. A silhouette as tight as a sock, asymmetrical Velcro lacing, a studded sole ready to scale peaks or firmly anchor itself to a surfboard. It is impossible to draw a straight line that could connect the dots of the PUMA Mostro Original from 1999 : an attractive mix of shapes and volumes destined to satisfy the hunger for novelty and projection towards a near future, that of the new 2000s, and at the same time trigger strong aesthetic doubts about the success of the operation. The writer proudly owns an original pair in green bought in Japan way back in 2001, to be extracted soon with caution from his personal archives.

This is the point: the direct connection with the past is fundamental when designing shoes, especially when it comes to sneakers. Having the courage to say something new through a deep and complex reinterpretation in the long term, ultimately pays off. When PUMA relaunched them at the beginning of the year for a sumptuous celebration of the first 25 years of existence, it was like going back to 1999. In pink and electric blue, in acid green/yellow (chosen by A$AP Rocky) and silver, we all went crazy: some for nostalgia, some for the discovery of the monster. 

Today, the latest chapter of the PUMA Mostro sees the originality and rebellious attitude of the experimental silhouette represented in the latest launch in perforated leather with a series of images captured in the sunshine in the vibrant Marseille.

Puma Mostro 1999, the year of the debut 

Helmut Fischer, deus ex machina and PUMA historical archivist, confided in an interview with Grailed: «I remember showing an in-house designer an old surf shoe found in the archives to a PUMA designer and telling him that if he could have one like that, it would be great.» Designer Peter Schmidt took this suggestion to heart to create a pair of hybrid sneakers, the PUMA Mostro original, deliberately using an Italian term to stress the concept of «ugly» and «alien». The design had won the bet in trying to merge the grip of the more traditional ’60s running spikes with the casual boat shoes of the ’80s. From a medium-low sales expectation these Puma shoes ended up exceeding 1 million pairs at the first drop, thus decreeing their global success.

The beginning of the new millennium couldn’t have started better. Madonna wore them during the Drowned world tour in 2001, while Bjork was photographed with a pair of gold Mostro Alto boots that later became direct inspo for the models of Ottolinger ‘s spring summer 2024 collection : extreme bandage, velcro closure for a revisitation bordering on the archaic and primitive.

In 2005 they made their film debut in Michael Bay’s The Island  with Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor. Basically the white PUMA Mostro with black inserts became the official uniform of the inhabitants of the island, the only place on earth that escaped the environmental disaster set in an absolutely dystopian and catastrophic context. Once again the bold and futuristic design combined with the essential and sanitized white generally associated with science and progress (see Kubrick’s 2001 Space Odyssey ) worked.

After a long period of silence PUMA revived the Mostro in 2017 and has since further transformed it through increasingly relevant and contemporary strategic collaborations. Among all, Coperni x PUMA made exactly like an elegant football boot inspired by the movement and brutalist architecture with an equally stark name: PUMA x Coperni 90SQR.

PUMA Monster A$AP Rocky, the perfect match 

A$AP Rocky becomes the creative director of Puma’s Formula 1 line dedicated to track racing and establishes a prolific and creative relationship with the brand. If during the 2023 Formula 1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas Rocky wears a pair of neon yellow PUMA Mostro sneakers while walking towards his pop-up store together with Rihanna (in theory his competitor with Fenty), the partnership is consecrated with the Welcome to Amazing Mostro Show fashion show dedicated to the fall/winter 24-25 men’s and women’s collection based on the futuristic concept of Puma Mostro. Rocky calls his visual style «GRIM» a neologism that comes from «ghetto expressionism» where his alter-ego interprets a new identity vision aimed at genetically modified brutalism with a rather strong zoomorphic animal soul. Impossible to try to resist him.