The Speedcat, Rocky tells GQ via email, \u201cis a canvas for me to reimagine through my own creativity,\u201d offering him a chance to \u201cblend true performance engineering and motorsport branding with a gritty lived-in aesthetic.\u201d The shoe starts with a black and red suede upper with an off-white Puma stripe splitting the colors in two. The design really kicks into high gear, however, towards the ultrathin sole. Artificial splatters adorn the bottom of the shoe, a play on the buildup of mud, debris, oil, and burnt rubber a driver is likely to find on their footwear following a race.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a carbon fiber print on the heel stabilizer, an homage to racing shoes of eras past, as well as double-wrapparound red laces and Rocky\u2019s signature on the Puma-branded tongue. \u201cRocky loves [the Speedcat\u2019s] origins and has become a real advocate for diving back into the archive and resurfacing the details that made it iconic,\u201d says Jon Tang, Puma design lead on all of Rocky\u2019s projects. \u201cSo we went all the way back to the original 1999 catalogs, where the first Speedcat debuted, and began pulling forward the elements that defined it.\u201d<\/p>\n