Jay-Z Named as President of Puma’s Newly Relaunched Basketball Operations

Jay-Z and Puma make their deal official. Puma will be relaunching its basketball division and named Jay-Z as the president. The also announced the signing of top draft prospects DeAndre Ayton (Arizona), Marvin Bagley III (Duke), and Zhaire Smith (Texas Tech). Adam Petrick, Puma’s global director of brand and marketing spoke about the partnership:

“We’ve been working with Roc Nation for quite some time. They’ve been great partners to us for several years. We’ve done many different deals with many different ambassadors. JAY-Z felt it was something he wanted to be a part of.”

As part of the partnership, Jay-Z/Roc Nation Sports will assist with players selection, art design and overall direction of the brand. Petrick added.

“What’s important to him on a day like today is that it’s clear we’re making a serious push with players like Bagley and Ayton and Smith. We’re making a serious statement about the entry of the category, that we want to be a performance brand, but then also very culturally focused. It’s clear that we’re looking at basketball through the lens of culture, and thinking about the fashion of basketball, the music of basketball, all the aspects of culture around basketball as much as the on court presence that we will have.”