Puma Champions Its Suede Legacy With Touching Ground

To celebrate the enduring legacy of its iconic Suede, Puma has tapped Touching Ground, a photography and film project by award-winning photographer and director Lauren Luxenberg and Medellín-based skater and creative Ronal Sanmartin, aka WTF Ronnie. The project captures the city’s skate culture through the community that has shaped it.

Having grown up in Medellín, skater and creative director Sanmartin knows the sprawling energy and contradictions that run through the city’s streets. Yet amid it all, a deep sense of pride continues to shape its skate community, and Touching Ground captures that spirit. For Puma, the collaboration—rooted in skateboarding—marks a return to the brand’s history in the late ’80s, when the Suede found a new life on the streets through the skate community.

Shot across digital photography, analogue film, Super 8, and camcorder footage, the project offers a candid portrait of Medellín and the vibrant community that continues to shape its youthful energy. Beyond skateboarding, it traces the traditions, chosen family, friendships, mountains, and everyday rituals that make up the city’s identity. In the process, Sanmartin finds himself reconnecting with his roots, his family’s history, and his country. What began as an escape from the pain and dangers of his neighborhood ultimately led him back to where he came from through skateboarding.

In much the same way, the Puma Suede comes full circle, reconnecting with the street culture that has worn, reworked, and claimed the silhouette across generations of skaters.