The Pumaoutletniños90s sneaker scene was caught up on technical advancements and still largely saw sneakers designed for sport, but despite its origins as an early trail running experiment, the Mostro trod the line between both fitness and fashion. The design was so different to anything other brands were producing at the time that the Mostro essentially carved out its own lane.
The Big Cat’s place within the fashion industry is not to be sniffed at. Back in 1998, the brand pioneered the high-low link-up formula by pairing up with Jil Sander on the Jil Sander King. Again, this involved a blend between two sports silhouettes: the King football boot, as worn by Brazilian legend Pelé, and the Easy Rider, PUMA’s revered jogging shoe. Echoing the Mostro’s comeback, it was the Jil Sander King that served as the inspiration for FENTY x PUMA – proof that PUMA’s archive is bursting with styles that still stand up today. In 2005, PUMA also teamed up with Alexander McQueen on their ‘Anatomical Vein’ sneaker. Its design language can be easily traced back to the Mostro.
Couple PUMA’s positioning with the Mostro’s futuristic appearance and it’s no surprise that the shoe played a part in pioneering the sportstyle category – which has gone from strength to strength over the past couple of years. The emergence of this category also set the tone for the rise of other PUMA silhouettes, such as the and the Sprint, which were both early noughties hits from the style’s aesthetic lineage.
