Dreamville isn’t a place, but it is a state. Energies and possibilities and opportunities run endlessly in Dreamville. Or is at Dreamville? Or is it through Dreamville?
Ib Hamad is coming to us live from Dreamville, teeming with positivity. The President of Dreamville has been living in the dream since the very beginning. He’s seen six different number one albums, some Grammy love and a signature sneaker. And he’s smiling about that sneaker, the PUMA RS-Dreamer.
“One thing with Cole, anybody that knows him, he thinks so far ahead,” Hamad tells SLAM. “I remember years ago when he was like, ‘Man, I’m gonna have my own basketball sneaker.’ And I used to be like, ‘That sounds crazy.’ But I never doubted it because I know that his will—he’s the ultimate dreamer. Out of anyone I’ve ever known, I’ve never seen anyone that can really set his mind to things and get it done, even when it seems ridiculous. From when we went to college and he’s like, ‘I’m gonna get signed.’ And people was like, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ The idea was flown around for him for so long that by the time it happened and you see that logo and you hold the sneaker and you’re looking, like, ‘Damn, this guy really set his mind to it.’ It was more the feeling of— obviously the sneaker’s incredible, it’s a beautiful sneaker—but it’s the feeling of the journey.”
“When we started our work with both Cole and Ib on the RS-Dreamer, we knew that in order for the franchise to be a success, they were going to be intimate partners in every step of the creative process,” Adam Petrick, Global Director of Brand and Marketing at PUMA, tells SLAM. “Their creative vision, connection to culture, and authentic attitudes gave this shoe and launch an unrivaled approach. We wanted to ensure that Cole’s vision and dream was brought to life and we feel pretty confident that it was.”
The RS-Dreamer is packed with all of PUMA’s best tech, including RS foam in the ProFoam midsole and a knitted upper with suede accents.
It originally dropped during the summer, but it’s back by popular demand in even greater quantities.
“We are really excited that we can bring the RS-Dreamer back to our consumers and fans after such a successful initial launch,” Petrick says. “This time last year at All-Star Weekend Cole wore the RS-Dreamer for the very first time and so we thought it was a nice moment to bring the model back.”
“When it first came out I don’t think we knew what to expect and it just sold out it in minutes, it went crazy,” Hamad adds. “And people wanted it bad. You want people to have it, you want people to play basketball, you want people to wear it out when they go out with their friends and to rob them of that experience because it sold out so quick didn’t feel right.”
The launch colorway returns with the DREAMER logo on the heel. It’s been the motto from the very jump. And though Cole and Hamad didn’t know it at the time, the word fits in perfectly with them. “Dream” originates from Middle English in the 13th century. Its first meaning can be traced back to “music.”
With a big laugh, Hamad says that he isn’t aware of the etymology of “dream.”
“But I’ll tell you what a ‘dreamer’ means to me because I think everybody’s going to interpret it differently and look at it differently,” he continues. “For me, it’s just someone that doesn’t allow things or people or energies to get in the way of what they want to do or what they want to accomplish, whether small or big. I’ve always had the utmost respect for people that just kinda could put they head down and be like I don’t care what you say, I don’t care what he says or she says, what they believe. I don’t care if it seem ridiculous. I’m gonna get it done. That’s sort of what a dreamer is.”
So live from the state of/in/at Dreams, a pawn became a king with just a dollar and something else…
—
PUMA’s not done yet, though. Check out this chance to win a ride on the PJ to link up with Melo Ball and Chris Brickley.
