PUMA Celebrates Jamaica’s Influence on Fashion, Music and Sport By Tapping DJ AG & Special Guests

One of London’s biggest cultural moments of the year, Notting Hill Carnival, is just around the corner, but PUMA is starting the conversation early. 

Just one day after Jamaica’s Independence Day, DJ AG took over the brand’s Oxford Street flagship to explore the influence of his Jamaican heritage and the cultural threads that continue to shape the creative worlds of both himself and his guests. 

For PUMA, that recognition isn’t simply seasonal. Ahead of Carnival, DJ AG’s conversation offered a chance to look beyond the celebration and towards the heritage. 

Jamaican culture has long shaped the way we dress from the colours we style, the tailoring in menswear that screams modern dandyism in it’s coordination, to the music we listen to and the athletes who bring a new level of ambition to the generations around us. While Windrush celebrations and Carnival bring a renewed focus to that influence each year, Jamaica’s creative impact exists far beyond the calendar moments that traditionally spotlight it. 

That’s what makes PUMA’s relationship with Jamaica particularly worth recognising. This union doesn't just appear only when the conversation is at its loudest, the brand has continued to champion Jamaican talent. 

Last year New Wave attended an early celebration with PUMA x Sharkkini, the brand of a young female designer whose string vest graphic tees were brought to life with the help of PUMA. New Wave have celebrated Puma’s collaborations with Jamaican talent from Jamaican award-winning Fashion Designer Bianca Saunder’s ‘38 Lovers Lane’, a community-led project highlighting Saunder’s heritage to Leon ‘Sweet’ Lewis’ accomplishment of running across Jamiaca in just four days for ‘Project Jamaica'. 

This time around, the brand are continuing to recognise the global mark Jamaica has carved in a panel discussion decorated with PUMA Suedes that built the stage for DJ AG, Bianca Saunders and Shiv Wilson to spotlight their heritage. 

When asking DJ AG about what representation of the island means to him, he replied, “Jamaica's such a powerful country, we have to celebrate it, and celebrate it in the right way.” As a DJ known for taking artists like Burna Boy, Miguel, Ari Lennox and Akon to name a few to the streets of the UK, DJ AG is constantly representing talent from genres that are inspired by Jamaican music. He goes on to express his love for dubplates and their origin in the motherland, “I have loads of dubplates so that’s a special one. So customized records, for me, Beenie Man, Zim Zimma…”. 

Looking towards the future of music and what’s to come after a successful AG Fest with PUMA where JME was one of its headliners, DJ AJ exclaims how the recent collaboration with Koffee in Brixton is one talent he would love to see in his festivals to come.

We finished our conversation with DJ AG summarising PUMA, “PUMA is culture. Going to Jamaica you see the artists wearing Puma but going to the African countries as well, so we recently went to Kenya and it’s the same thing there. They know what they're doing.” 

Our chat was followed by football coach and Content Creator Shiv Wilson and Bianca joining him in conversation on everything from Jamaican / Patois slang used in London, their favourite dishes and the icons that built the country’s international legacy. The city will see DJ AG on stage at Notting Hill Carnival, PUMA wearers flexing their H-Street Jamaica colourways and fashion that reminds us of the vibrancy the country brings to the rest of the world.