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How PUMA & The Black Fives Foundation are Making History Now

author
Luis Torres

PUMA continues to celebrate basketball heritage through its inline product as well as extended partnerships. The Black Fives Foundation, an organization dedicated to the pre-NBA days where Black players traveled all around the country, follows up its collaboration with the brand with an all-new collection.

Following the “Make History Now” motif, the second The Black Fives x PUMA capsule highlights the teams’ journey during the Jim Crow era.

Their journeys played an instrumental role in popularizing the game while providing essential cultural inspiration to Black communities across America. This collection of vintage-inspired designs and fabrications showcases these experiences with historical graphics and authentic logos maintained by the Foundation.

We spoke to Claude Johnson, Founder & Executive Director of The Black Fives Foundation, ahead of the latest collection. Learn what he had to say below for more.

SoleSavy: What called you to start The Black Fives Foundation, and what was that journey like?

Claude Johnson: I was working at NBA Properties, and they were celebrating what they called their 50th anniversary in 1996. They published an 800-page book, and they only had three pages devoted to only two early African-American basketball teams. However, I had read Arthur Ashe’s A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete that talked about several dozen teams. It started going to the library, and no one knew — the league archivist, the Hall of Fame didn’t know, and the internet was just getting started. I started going to the library and looking at the microfilm and found this was a whole parallel universe of Black basketball in the early 1900s. I didn’t know where I was going with it.

In a short time, I realized, “Here’s this team called the Smart Set Atheltic Club from Brooklyn, and I’m from Brooklyn. This has got to be on a t-shirt.” I’m in licensing and here’s an all-Black athletic club in 1904. I was always thinking, “How do I get this on a t-shirt?” because I knew about trademarking, I started applying it in all these logos.

Historty can get obsucred and lost. Apparel, footwear, fashion is a language of themselves. If they’re interested in the merchandise, the story will come with it.

SoleSavy: The first collection laid the groundwork for an introduction of The Black Fives Foundation. The upcoming collection focuses more on the individual teams and their voyages. Why was that aspect so crucial in the storytelling in the second collection?

Claude Johnson: We’ve had licensing/merchandising programs with other companies in the past. It was just “Here’s all these teams,” but if you don’t know their basis and the context, you can make up any team. If you’re not aware, it doesn’t have meaning. PUMA’s a true partner. It’s not just a quick collab.

The early sessions with PUMA were always about introducing The Black Fives era 1904-1950, one bite at a time. This new collection is to let people know that there were different teams. You don’t have to be an expert on these teams. We want the consumer to get excited, which will lead someone to find out more to dig deep into a specific team. In the future, we might do more team-specific stories.

It wasn’t just all these teams in New York City or Pittsburgh; they traveled around with their journeys. The triumphs and the hardships are what paved the way for the modern game we know today. Digging that with some tidbits and nuances is what we wanted to celebrate.

PUMA did a great job of storytelling, and the product relayed that. Oftentimes, they went to all-white towns that had never seen black people or basketball. When we talk about NBA and NCAA teams, we have to look back at where that all started. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Cleveland — where did they get their fanbase?

That’s how we begin to weave and thread those stories together.

SoleSavy: What inspired the overall aesthetic, and what was that convo like with PUMA?

Claude Johnson: Pennants were the authentic teams that rooters had. They yelled and cheered with the pennants. Back then, I made them and shipped them to the store in a natural way. I still had some. I showed them to PUMA, and they were amazed by it.

What better way to show the pennants than displaying them on the garment. The pennant is generally associated with baseball but was also essential and authentic to basketball. That’s its own story.

SoleSavy: Last summer, a lot was going on within the Black community, both socially and politically. Though the conversations weren’t new, the attention and spotlight brought the issues to a new light. Since then, we’ve seen brands, athletes, and teams be more vocal about their support. In collaborating with PUMA, what made the black fives era & PUMA partnership natural and fitting?

Claude Johnson: Part of it is luck and part of it is intention. PUMA has an area called #REFORM, where they give sincere and genuine support to LGBTQ, gender equality, and prison reform. The right people realize. People see PUMA as the antidote to the giant footwear companies; people who are down with PUMA are down with the causes. It says something about you if you wear PUMA. They built this authenticity and this branding.

They approached us from a long-term partnership perspective. Part of it is their interest level, and part of it is us knowing what PUMA does. We knew this was going to be a genuine effort. We can tell an authentic basketball story, an authentic African-American story through the product, and even a performance-level product. It helps validate our brand and mission. What you wear is a first look, a conversation starter. If what you’re wearing is about the story of authentic Black culture and Black history, which is American history, it’s one-upmanship.

We have an extensive collection of artifacts in our museum and all over. Because of COVID1-9, we now have an online museum present by PUMA. We’re about to launch the next series of artifacts. We want people to see that because there’s an educational component.

Going back to last summer, I thought to myself, it’s not enough anymore to say, “Look at these pioneers, they paved the way, they overcame obstacles, let’s give a round of applause for them.” Celebrating Black history isn’t the same as applying Black history to make changes today. We called for Black history education reform with mandatory Black history and access for all. PUMA jumped right on.

It’s not just support of Black history knowledge but reform. We can’t be accountable for changing systemic racism, white supremacy, and those topics. But what we can do is can use this history to start those conversations to make progress in those areas.

SoleSavy: If there’s one thing you hope someone gets out of this collection, what would it be?

Claude Johnson: With PUMA, we’re trying to stand apart. We’re not trying to be another collection. We’re just as much as trying to do something as trying to undo something. Sports are so powerful as a common denominator to start the conversation and to teach and to learn.

If you pick up that shoe, the footbed has dates and milestones. And that creates a conversation. That’s how you actually educate people, but it also looks beautiful.

We hope people understand and appreciate it on a sustained basis to expect it from us and everyone. It’s about raising the bar.

SoleSavy: The season is about to kick off, and PUMA has stars all over. Can we expect anything on the court from The Black Fives Foundation?

Claude Johnson: there’s going to be some performance footwear. I can’t say who or when, but that’s always a part of the conversation. You’ll see it during the following season. Early 2022.  There are going to be some on-court elements. How dope would it be to have an NBA player wear a “Make History Now” shoe? Players will see it, media will see it, fans will see it.

The Black Fives Foundation x PUMA collection releases on October 8 at PUMA.com and select retailers ranging from $40 to $125. Be sure to head over to BlackFives.org for more about the Foundation, the era, and its teams.

Keep it locked on SoleSavy for more from PUMA. 

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