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When longtime Puma brand ambassador Jay-Z first stepped out in a pair of Off-White Nike Air Force 1 Lows in 2023, speculation as to What It Meant ran rampant across the sneaker world. Hov had served as Puma’s creative director of basketball since 2018, and his stylist (and a renowned costume designer in her own right) June Ambrose had stepped in as the creative director of women’s basketball in 2020. When you work for a sneaker brand, you rep–you don’t boost the competition. Jay walked the walk for years, stepping out in Pumas on the regular (his affinity for the brand stretches back years before the partnership even began).
These days it’s unclear as to whether the professional relationship between Puma and Jay is still in place (though it’s worth noting that Ambrose left the brand in 2023 to focus on personal work). What we know for sure is that Jay-Z’s been stepping out in the Swoosh far more often in recent months. Case in point: at a recent housewarming party for Jeff Bezos, Jay showed up in a simple pair of Air Force 1s that served as the finishing touch to the perfect low-key summer fit.
Good fits tend to get overcomplicated, especially when summer heat sets in. Hov kept it simple with a drapey white tee and a pair of green track pants with a generous fit. He finished the look off with a simple chain and pendant and those aforementioned AF1s–a great pair to add to your summer rotation. When Jay’s stepped out in Nikes lately they’ve tended to be pretty elite ones, the sort that are prohibitively rare and expensive for your average sneakerhead (case in point: the Off-White Chicago Jordan 1s he trotted out courtside at a Clippers game this past season). It’s not just Nikes, either. He’s also been spotted in adidas Yeezy joints and, most notably, pulled out an old pair of his S. Carter x Reeboks from way back in 2003 at the Super Bowl in February.
While the red-Swoosh Forces he laced up for this fit aren’t currently available on Nike’s online store, they’re a cinch to buy on resale platforms, where their price hovers only a few bucks above retail (StockX has their average price at $102 as of this writing). It’s a classic colorway that goes with just about anything, but looks best with a simple fit like the one Jay rocked. We still don’t know the state of his relationship with Puma–more and more it seems like that chapter may be over–but these days it definitely feels like Hov may be cooking something up with the folks in Beaverton. That or he’s just a sucker for good fits, Swoosh or no.
