Puma Suede 'Triplex - Nimbus Cloud Sweet Grape'
Colorway: Nimbus Cloud/Sweet Grape/White · Style code: 381175-06 · Release date: October 28, 2021 · Price: $2452 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Puma Suede 'Triplex - Black Steel Grey' (381175-01) · Puma Suede 'Triplex - Ivory Glow' (381175-02) · Puma Suede 'Triplex - Grey Violet New Navy' (381175-03) · Puma Suede 'Triplex - Black Blue Fog' (381175-05) · Puma Suede 'Triplex - Black Paradise Pink' (381175-09)
The branding element is the whole story here. It is built in three stacked pieces, and on this pair they run purple, ivory and white against a Nimbus Cloud grey upper, so the Formstrip becomes the loudest thing on a shoe that is otherwise pale and quiet. Puma released it on October 28, 2021 at 70 dollars, no more than a plain pair cost and unusually cheap for a design-led variation.
Grey is the right base for something like this. It gives the purple a neutral to sit against without the hardness white would bring, and it stops the shoe looking like a swatch of the colours involved. Sweet Grape is a mid purple rather than a deep one, so the combination stays soft instead of turning into a contrast exercise. What makes the pair worth a look is that the change is structural rather than decorative: the branding is physically different, not merely recoloured. That is a rarer kind of variation on a shape that usually gets new colours and nothing else.