This season, a sneaker is arriving that does something most footwear won’t: it transforms. Puma partnered with the label J.L-A.L, founded by designer Jahleel Weaver, to release a carefully curated collection centered on a reimagined version of the CELL Geo. The shoe debuted at Paris Fashion Week in June 2025 and finally is availabled in stores. If you have been paying attention, then you already know.
The CELL Geo is the kind of shoe that rewards patience. Its outer layer fades with wear, transforming the colorway from a finished, clean look to a gradient that reflects the wearer’s unique style. There are two options: “Ombré” and “Midnight,” both of which are made of patent leather. The geometry is deliberate, angular, and specific. This isn’t a retro silhouette dressed up in contemporary clothing. The CELL cushioning technology that defined the original has been reinterpreted for 2026; the lines of the upper have been reimagined rather than merely referenced.
Weaver built his label around the idea that clothing and footwear should function according to how the body actually moves, not how a garment looks on a rack. J.L-A.L works from performance architecture. In practice, this means anatomical cutlines, articulated construction, and a modular approach where pieces relate to one another without being locked together. The Puma x J.L-A.L collection takes this concept further with a jacket, trousers, a t-shirt, a baseball cap, and a hobo bag that can be integrated with the rest of the system. Nothing here is incidental.
The word “system” is worth taking seriously. When you look at the campaign imagery, shot against a noiseless background with mirrored poses, what registers is precisely that: multiplicity. The same piece is interpreted differently depending on how it’s worn and what it’s paired with. The photography doesn’t hype the clothes so much as demonstrate their range. This restraint is unusual.
Weaver’s approach has something in common with designers who came up through performance and utilitarian references: Rick Owens in his early phase, early Helmut Lang, and the Japanese workwear axis. However, J.L.-A.L. occupies its own space. There’s no irony or archival nostalgia. The collection is forward-looking in the most literal sense; it’s designed for the environments and people of today.
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Puma brings structural credibility to the collaboration. The CELL platform has a documented history dating back to the late ’90s when it appeared on running shoes and trainers with visible hexagonal chambers in the midsole. It was a genuine technological statement at the time. Revisiting it with J.L.A.L isn’t nostalgia. It’s a question of what this technology looks like when the focus is on design rather than athletic performance and the wearer is heading into a city, not preparing for a race.
The answer, at least in the CELL Geo, is a more thoughtful design than most collaborative sneakers offer. The patent leather will age. The gradient isn’t printed or predetermined; it develops through contact with light and friction. In a sense, you are finishing the shoe yourself. For a sneakerhead who has spent time thinking about patina – the way a white Air Force 1 yellows or suede loses its nap in certain spots – that idea is immediately understandable.
To coincide with the release, Truss Archive will release a short documentary on YouTube and social media that follows the development of the collaboration. It features behind-the-scenes material, the design process, and the thinking behind the collection’s construction. It’s a useful document, not just marketing infrastructure.
The Puma x J.L-A.L collection is availabled starting February 21st, 2026, on puma.com, in Puma flagship stores, and through select stockists.