WNBA Champion Breanna Stewart on Shaping Women’s Basketball With PUMA

With one of the most impressive sporting careers of all time, WNBA Champion Breanna Stewart is no stranger to the spotlight. In college, she was a four-time NCAA Champion and named the Most Outstanding Player at the NCAA Tournament another four times – something no other player of any gender has been able to achieve. When she turned pro, she was the overall first pick in the 2016 draft, the youngest member of the USA Women’s Basketball team in Rio, and was unanimously awarded Rookie of the Year. Fast forward to the start of 2024, and her accolades just keep on coming. She's a two-time WNBA Champion, a two-time Olympic Gold Medallist, and a five-time WNBA MVP.

When PUMA launched their women's Hoops division in 2021, it was a no-brainer to sign on Stewie, and the partnership has continued to set the pace in women’s basketball ever since. In another leap forward for the sport, PUMA gave Stewie her first signature shoe in 2022, the Stewie 1 – marking the first signature women’s basketball shoe in 10 years and only the 10th one ever.

Now onto its third evolution, the PUMA Stewie 3 promises a ton of technical advancements, with mproved NITROfoam for better responsiveness, as well as a dual-density Profoam+ midsole unit for targeted cushioning. It also boasts a low-cut upper and narrow fit – the best of both worlds in support and freedom of movement – and a high-abrasion outsole for more grip on the court. But as well as being the most technical Stewie silhouette yet, it's also her most personal, as it boasts aesthetic details that celebrate her journey.

With the WNBA season and the Olympic Games just around the corner, PUMA and Stewie celebrated the reveal of the Stewie 3 with a preview and wear test event in Paris – the city that’ll play host to the 2024 Olympic Games. We were on the ground to chat with her about the new silhouette.

Hi Stewie! Two signature shoes down, one to come this year. Can you tell us more about why the Stewie 1 was so important?

The Stewie 1 was monumental for women's basketball, as it was the first signature shoe in ten years in the women's basketball space – and only the tenth one ever. We just weren't at a time where signatures were happening a lot for female basketball players. Thankfully, that’s changed a bit since.

That's game-changing. How has this journey with PUMA been for you?

Yeah, you could say we're trendsetters. It's been great working with PUMA. Even before we were dealing with my signature shoes, you could tell just from being in talks with them that they wanted to be on the right side of history. A lot of time with women’s sports and women's basketball, brands are constantly asking the question of whether it will work, but PUMA weren't afraid to try. Now, here we are with the Stewie 3 releasing, so we must be doing something right.

As mentioned, the Stewie 3 is slated to drop this year and we can see it’s looking great. Can you tell us how it builds on the Stewie 2?

So the Stewie 3 is a low-top shoe, and I've made sure it's not super narrow but that it’s fitted to my foot. We also wanted to make sure that the story continued to expand. I think that any time you move on from the first release to the second and the third, you have to level up. We improved the NITRO foam and technology within each shoe and then put in a load of special designs.

Technical innovations aside, let’s talk about the details on the shoe. Can you tell me the story behind them?

It's my favourite shoe because of the details. There are five flowers on this shoe, which you won't see unless you look and find them, and they all have a specific meaning. The first one is the rose, the state flower of New York, which is where I'm from. There's also a Spanish carnation for my wife Marta, Japanese cherry blossoms for the Tokyo Olympics, a golden trumpet tree for the Rio Olympics, and then blooming seeds for my daughter and for the next generation. I think that's cool, because the roots are building off of my logo and that's the goal behind it, to pave the way for the next generation.

This colourway is super energetic too. Could you tell me more about the inspiration behind it?

This is the ‘Dawn’ colourway, and it's supposed to emulate the colours of a Syracuse sunrise. The idea behind that is that as working women, as female basketball players, we're constantly on the go from dawn until dusk. We're always having to do things, always having to play or travel to different countries to meet the economic needs of our lifestyle. And I wanted the first shoe to pop. I like all of them to pop, but especially the first.

Will you be breaking the Stewie 3 out at the games?

This is the model I'll be wearing at the games, but it won't be this colourway. I can't talk about that, but we have a lot of surprises in store for the Stewie 3.

How does the tech in the footwear you’re wearing this year compare to the previous Olympics?

I was still wearing NITRO in 2020, but PUMA have been working hard on constantly building on the comfort and responsiveness of the NITRO foam. It's definitely evolved, just like you'd hope any shoe has over four years.

PUMA have such an impressive Olympic heritage. How does it feel to be repping the Big Cat for the competition?

I'm really excited to be repping PUMA at the Olympics, especially with the Year of Sport campaign and being around some of the other athletes. It's going to be even more exciting for me as I'm going to be able to cheer other people on and have a feeling of knowing people outside of basketball. We have a great sense of pride, not just knowing we're representing our families or our countries, but also knowing that we’re representing PUMA.

You can watch Stewie’s progress throughout the WNBA season starting on May 19, along with the Paris Olympics, which kicks off on July 26. The PUMA Stewie 3 lands on May 14 via PUMA’s online channels, app and NYC Flagship store.