Rhude’s Rhuigi Villaseñor Stars in Puma’s Latest Ad Campaign – WWD

Rhuigi Villaseñor is one busy guy.

The founder and designer of the Los Angeles-based streetwear brand Rhude — who also serves as the creative director of Bally — has one last project up his sleeve for this year.

On Thursday, he will unveil his latest partnership with Puma as part of the ForeverPuma campaign, where the brand tapped a group of cultural influencers to explore the meaning of “classic” through product and content. The influencers, or “The Collective,” were chosen by Jay-Z, Puma’s basketball and classics creative director, and his longtime friend Emory Jones, who serves as a key cog in his Roc Nation empire.

As Puma’s chief brand officer Adam Petrick explained at the time of the ForeverPuma launch eight months ago: “This year we will be highlighting Puma’s legacy as a classic sneaker brand by asking a select group of iconic cultural leaders the essential question: What is a classic?”

Other creatives in “The Collective” have included Jones, Dapper Dan, Walt “Clyde” Frazier, June Ambrose, photographer Lenny Santiago and Mike Camargo, founder of Upscale Vandal, all of whom shared their stories of growth and development in short films by director Nadia Hallgren, as well as through capsule collections.

And now it’s Villaseñor’s turn.

The first part of the partnership will be Thursday’s video followed by a capsule collection that will launch on Saturday. In the short film, Villaseñor talks about growing up in Manila in the Philippines and being drawn to the big logos he saw of big brands such as McDonald’s and Puma. “I wanted to be one of those, because to me, that was my north star,” he said. The video goes on to chronicle his life and how a “regime change” in his home country forced the family to leave and land in “sunny California,” where he expected everyone to have pools in the backyard and convertibles. He latched on to American television and marketing and soon developed a love for pop culture and music, especially hip-hop.

He got his start creating music videos, which were a medium that “brought communities together and chose who you aligned with,” he said. And he started wearing black Puma Roma sneakers, which represented the “code” for all of the “fresh kids.” He then discovered thrifting, which was where he learned about the construction of clothes and consumers, he said. That ultimately led to the creation of his brand that he described as “logging documentation of the society in clothing form.”

For the Puma apparel line, Villaseñor said he will be “playing with social taboos” but still “leaning to the obvious. No matter how poetic I can be with my clothes, I know people still need to wear them. It’s not satire, but it provides a new perspective to the clothes. And we need entertainment.”

Although he lives on the West Coast, Villaseñor looked to New York City for inspiration for the capsule that pays homage to the five boroughs.

For the first drop, Villaseñor reworked a faux leather down jacket by embellishing it with collegiate-style appliqués and patches and reimagined the Puma Suede sneaker in black leather with a reptile debossing and the year 1991 stamped in gold on the heel.

The next two drops will include his reinterpretation of some of the “signifiers of the brand” such as Puma’s classic tracksuit, he said, as well as other jackets and shoes.

“So much of my work is an ode to California,” he said, pointing to the “colors and silhouettes that are “derivative” of the state. “But for this project, I extended my creative vision to a more global scale.”

The campaign for the collection also features real New Yorkers including Liv, an artist; Yang Xiao Di, a juggling master, and Jared Crawford, a drummer and composer.

The partnership between the designer and Puma actually started several years ago when Villaseñor put his spin on some of the brand’s classic sneakers along with a complementary apparel capsule for his Rhude brand. The relationship has continued with several other popular drops. “It’s a fluid relationship,” he said, adding that he has “great love for the brand.”

As part of this partnership, Puma also worked with each member of its Collective to select a rising member of the next generation of potential influencers to receive a grant as well as mentorship and promotional support.

In the case of Villaseñor, the designer handpicked photographer Adrian Martin who, like Villaseñor, hails from Manila and emigrated to Los Angeles. Martin will receive $20,000 from Puma to support his career.

Villaseñor said he discovered Martin on social media and pointed to his body of work and the community he’s creating as the reasons he selected Martin for this opportunity.

“I wish I could work with everyone, but he comes from my country and it’s important to keep spirits high and the American dream alive,” he said.

Martin said he plans to “utilize the grant by working with a full BIPOC team and supporting and showcasing communities of color, along with their work.”

In addition to finding creatives like Martin, Villaseñor said he looks at social media as the “easiest encyclopedia” of our times and uses it to “click into the dark realm to find new creatives.”

Since launching the Rhude brand in 2015, Villaseñor has made a name with his reinterpreted classics that draw inspiration from Americana, music and street style.

The Herzogenaurach, Germany-based Puma, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2023, recently announced a change at the helm, with chief executive officer Bjørn Gulden leaving to take the top post at Adidas, and the planned elevation of chief commercial officer Arne Freundt to succeed him at the start of the year.