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You don’t have to look hard to notice, but the guard is changing in hip-hop and fashion. Young creatives are running things and the rules are being rewrote. The new generation is one that views hip-hop, fashion and design on the same plane, placing the same importance on each facet when creating.
Anwar Carrots isn’t a product of that generation, he’s a catalyst. At only 20 years of age (he’ll turn 21 this month), Anwar is known as the co-captain of the Peas & Carrots team and a fixture of the Fairfax fashion scene. Set to drop his first footwear collaboration with PUMA this month, we caught up with Anwar to discuss his design process, the ever-growing PUMA roster and who he hopes to see wear his sneakers.
Nice Kicks: How did the PUMA partnership first come about?
Anwar Carrots: The partnership came about through Roc Nation, where Casey Veggies is managed. Rich Kleiman called me asking for an influencer for the PUMA Social Club that we were doing. It went from making a bike to going to Brazil for a photoshoot, and eventually a shoe came about. The shoe is a year in the making.
Nice Kicks: You’ve been working in apparel for years. How does tackling a classic silo like the Suede differ from designing your own clothing line?
Anwar Carrots: Working on the Suede versus our own clothing line was pretty simple. We had three colors to work with, and I worked with the PUMA team on it. With the clothing line, you have to come up with concepts, the art director has to go through a bunch of designing steps and I have to choose what I like and what I don’t like. With the PUMA team, it was very simple – it was just colors and where I wanted everything to go.
Nice Kicks: Individuality has long been a key part of your personal style. On the flip side, how does it feel to know a bunch of people will be wearing your shoes?
Anwar Carrots: It’s amazing. I’ve got them on my feet right now, like, this sh*t is real. It’s going to trip me out, especially when I see people walking in the street in them. What I like about the shoe is that some people might not even know who I am and they might just cop the shoe because they like it. It’s just going to be wild to see. I might even walk past people and they don’t even know they’re wearing my shoe. I’m happy about all that.
Nice Kicks: How have you seen the PUMA movement take off in LA and on the artist scene since partnering a year back?
Anwar Carrots: Since Casey got with PUMA, I’ve seen more kids tweeting him about how they bought PUMA Suedes because of him. I see people rocking them in the city and all our homies are rocking PUMA. Trendsetters have crazy influence, and I’m rocking with it. They’re picking all the right artists right now, too. A lot of my favorite artist are on PUMA now. Future is actually my favorite rapper, so that just made everything ten times better. I’m loving being a part of it. To probably see them where my shoes is really gonna freak me out. [Laughs] I’m just one of the regular kids that’s been up on the street like everybody else, posted up, and now I’ve got my own shoe.
The Anwar Carrots x PUMA Collection will launch at Nice Kicks, Villa, Shoe Palace, the PUMA Lab powered by Foot Locker and select PUMA retailers. Stay tuned for more release information.
Lead image photo by Chandler Easely
