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WE ARE LEGENDS
WE ARE LEGENDS: A PLATFORM LED BY PUMA’S NEW ERA OF BLACK DESIGNERS
October 4, 2022WE ARE LEGENDS: A PLATFORM LED BY PUMA’S NEW ERA OF BLACK DESIGNERS
October 4, 2022“We Are Legends” is PUMA’s new storytelling and product development platform that celebrates Black excellence and cultural impact. To tell you all about it, CATch Up spoke with Ariel Weekes. In addition to his work as Footwear Merchandising Manager, Ariel is the Chair of our PUMA BBOLD Employee Resource Group in the U.S. Learn more about the group’s amazing work and join us in celebrating the now of black culture – with We Are Legends and “The Yard” collection.
Can you explain when and why the group was founded? What does it stand for?
Ariel: I started at PUMA in 2019, just one year before the pandemic. When I started to work for PUMA, I realized a lot of our ambassadors represented what I look like – Meek Mill, Nipsey Hussle, Rihanna, many of our basketball athletes, and that’s awesome. I loved it. I like the connection to the community, and that’s really something that appeals to me. But when I walked into the office, it was very different. It didn’t look like what I see from the outside. There was a lack of black and brown people in the office. So, we started putting together what we thought we needed to do to advocate for a culture that were one of our largest consumer groups.
And when the social injustices happened and those horrific murders happened in the U.S., the issue became even more important. It made it laser focus clear, that we need some sort of program. And that´s how it got started.
In May 2020 we started formulating the BBOLD group. In the beginning we were eight people. In August 2020 we officially launched the Employee Resource Group (ERG). It’s PUMA´s first ERG globally. Really exciting! We are still growing and are still at a young stage, but on a good track.
How many people are involved in the group?
Ariel: We are 90 – 100 people now and I think 20 – 30 of them are actively participating in our monthly meetings.
Can you name your main goals you want to achieve with the group?
Ariel: One of the main goals is to make sure that the office, our products, and our work is equitable. That is a major focus. The other focus is to make sure we are accessible to the people who we’re looking after – the black and brown community. But then also to make sure we get the recruiting and also development within our business. If we have employees here that are starting today or want to matriculate, I want to make sure that the employee resource group is present, so those people feel comfortable, seen, and able to elevate within the company.
How would you describe black culture today with three adjectives?
Ariel:I’ll speak mainly from the American perspective. I think one for sure is resiliency. Another one is beautiful. It’s also colorful, and I don’t mean that in a pun way, obviously, but more in a “vibrant” way. Evolving like we’re consistently growing and building ourselves, which is probably a humanity thing, right? But in general, I think we are quicker to evolve just because we’re on the fringe. When you’re the fringe people you have to create a lot faster and then the people in the middle adapt that culture. You see a lot of the growth out there. So when I use the word evolving, I don’t mean it necessarily in the evolution of mankind, I just mean it in the sense of innovation or creativity.
“The name, We Are Legends, comes from the idea of celebrating the now in Black culture. Often when we celebrate Black culture, we look to the past. However, our collective wanted to help change this narrative by empowering people to speak up in their most authentic voices now, to create their own legacy that will be legendary. We Are Legends shines the light on both the legacy of this design collective and the legends within their own communities.”
Ariel Weeks, Chair of the PUMA B-Bold ERG and Footwear Merchandising Manager
Now, you launched a major milestone project with the We Are Legends Platform. What is it about?
Ariel: The name, We Are Legends, comes from the idea of celebrating the now in Black culture. Often when we celebrate Black culture, we look to the past. However, our collective wanted to help change this narrative by empowering people to speak up in their most authentic voices now, to create their own legacy that is legendary. We Are Legends shines the light on both the legacy of this design collective and the legends within their own communities. Originally, the idea was to look for something in the States for Black History Month. Black History Month is in February. And then also there’s Juneteenth, which is in June that we have started to observe here at PNA. WE wanted to empower people, everyone around me to make sure they understand they are legends and have the opportunity to be as legendary as, say a, Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. The collection was championed and led by black designers and strives to empower and amplify the voices of our Black community – our legends.
Any future projects of the PUMA BBOLD ERG Group you want to talk about?
Ariel: “The Yard” is the first collection under the We Are Legends platform. It released globally on October 1, 2022, on our PUMA app and at the New York City Flagship store. Since October 3, 2022, the collection is available on PUMA.com and select retailers worldwide. That’s very exciting. We also do a lot of projects within our office. I think there’s a really great project going on called Flourish, which is between the BBOLD ERG and our ERG Mom´s Squad honoring women and Hispanic Heritage Month (or Latin) which spans from September 15th to October 15th. There’s still a certain dichotomy in that that needs to be delineated between Hispanic or LatinX naming. Flourish will host a Yoga session on a Saturday with our Mom´s Squad (ERG for working mom´s), led by women that identify as Hispanic/LatinX. I am really looking forward to it. The class sold out in just one day. On Saturday, 60 people will come to the office. In addition to the yoga class, there will be gifts, and a panel discussion. It’s a fantastic initiative to make sure we are connected to the community. We also have our holiday events. There is a big brunch planned, coupled with an annual awards ceremony in October. Next year we are looking to expand further. One of our initiatives is to build a career pipeline for our teammates out in the retail field into our corporate world. We have established a Five Cs model: Career, Community, Communication, Culture and Commerce. We want to hit all of those five Cs and make sure we remain a real resource for people.
“The Yard” collection looks dope.
Ariel: Yes. All the designers worked hard on it. I mean, it was a labor of love, for sure. Despite the pandemic and logistic challenges we have made things work. There were a bunch of people internally that made sure that this wasn’t going to fall through the the wayside. They made sure that this remained an initiative. I am very grateful for that!
Catch up will talk to the designers of the WE ARE LEGENDS collection in the coming weeks and ask them about their drive and creative directive. So, watch out!
