Harry s decisive kill, Puma casts spell

There is a lot of "evidence" about the real existence of magic, but Halliburton contributed four times in this year's NBA playoffs.

On June 6, at the end of the first quarter of the NBA Finals, when the Pacers, who were all soldiers, kept hitting the key balls and smoothed the 13-point gap, Halliburton once again took the basketball and made a mid-range shot, snatching the next home court from the league in an unexpected way, and completing his fourth final victory in this playoff journey.

Before that, there has never been any team in NBA history that can turn around and win the game when they are 9 points behind in the last 3 minutes of the Finals.

historical level performance.

Source: Athlon Sports

On social media, Harry also rushed to various hot search lists at home and abroad with this final victory, triggering the most intense wave of traffic in this year's NBA playoffs. At the post-match press conference, facing the reporters who filled the room, the first thing Harry did after he arrived was to slowly place the exclusive signature shoes of the PUMA Hali 1, which had just completed his debut, in the most conspicuous position on the table. In the subsequent answer, he even directly regarded the shoes as a "secret weapon" he threw into the final kill.

When people's eyes are still focusing on this epic reversal and the magical performance of the stars, PUMA has already taken advantage of the "Harry Magic" to complete the most accurate and sharp brand market in recent years, and the timing is perfect for the marketing trajectory of the star signature shoe.

Source: PUMAHOOPS

It is reported that when he competed with the team in the Paris Olympics last year, PUMA had already started contact with Harry's team and successfully announced the official cooperation between the two sides before the start of the regular season of this year's new season. During the season, PUMA launched a theme PE with personal characteristics to spend the running-in period around its All-Pro Nitro shoes, and successfully printed the brand temperament of PUMA on this potential All-Star point guard.

However, in the regular season, although the Pacers finally stood at the fourth place in the East, Halliburton was not the most outstanding group in the league in terms of performance, play style or storyline. Even with the addition of new aid Siakam, the data did not rise but fell compared to last year.

In the increasingly demanding media environment, this is fatal to the reputation of a young player - correspondingly, Halliburton was also named "the most overrated player" in the anonymous survey of players released by The Athletic. The gears of time keep turning, and PUMA is also hidden in the dark, waiting for an opportunity to explode.

Photo source: PUMAHOOPS

After the Pacers showed their strength and eliminated the Cavaliers with the highest record in the Eastern Conference with a score of 4-1, Halliburton once posted the "Hali 1" heel on social media, which led to a wave of discussion and speculation.

In the refreshing Eastern Conference Final, Harry not only showed his key abilities again, replicating the famous "throat lock" scene, but also scored 32 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists, 4 steals and 0 turnovers in the fifth game. PUMA not only launched the last wave of publicity for All-Pro Nitro, but also officially announced Halliburton's personal logo to the outside world for the first time around the topic of "the most overrated".

Finally, a few hours before the finals, PUMA's official social media raided the Hali 1 shoe model, finding the highest-profile, most traffic and attention-oriented debut method for its next stage of ace basketball signature product.

The whole world did not expect him to go so far, only PUMA was always ready.

Source: PUMAHOOPS

It is reported that Hali 1 was designed by PUMA's new creative director of basketball products. In the first color scheme, the more common track logo on Puma's footwear products was not used. Instead, it adopted the classic puma logo and matched the arc of the upper position.

Yahoo Sports once revealed that the first thing Benbrey did after taking office in August last year was to select Halliburton as one of the brand's main spokespersons for the future.

"Tyres (Halliburton) has a very high-level aesthetic, so our communication process is very silky, which is very rare." Benbri once told a sneaker account in the United States.

In addition to design, if we trace back from this entire marketing link, what PUMA presents is not a "striking" burst of luck, but a highly self-disciplined and adventurous product and brand plan - from selecting players to polishing products, finally controlling the nodes, making the brand a part of the epic moment, all reflect the increasingly mature brand philosophy of PUMA basketball.

Compared with the signature shoe series of Lamelo Ball, another signature star under the brand, from color matching to design language, it has been deliberately breaking the so-called "standard signature shoe" design formula, so that it has been highly recognizable and personalized since its birth. Today's Hali 1 is obviously not copying another template of Lamelo, but rebuilding a completely different set of visual logic based on the player's own temperament and expression.

Compared with the Clyde series with a strong reputation and a more conservative overall concept, the language reflected by PUMA basketball on Hali 1 has become sharper with the naked eye.

If we take our perspective a step further, this may be what Puma needs most at this stage.

In the first quarter of 2025, PUMA sales reached 2.076 billion euros, and footwear sales increased by 2.4% year-on-year to 1.186 billion euros, with a relatively flat overall growth trend. Although products such as the Sanqiu series and All-Pro Nitro have gradually gained a group of loyal consumers, they have not helped PUMA establish unique competitiveness in the consumer market from the brand level.

Now, by binding signature shoes to Halliburton’s historic playoff journey, PUMA has also successfully sent a clear signal to the market: we are still the enablers of the top arena scenes, not the vassal of the trend.

Recalling the 6th Game of the 1998 NBA Finals, when Michael Jordan knocked down Byron Russell at the last moment, scored the winning goal, and helped the Bulls Dynasty complete the second "three consecutive championships", the black and red AJ14 sneakers under his feet also became a classic in the hearts of countless fans as they freeze at this moment.

The reason why Jordan Brand can gradually deepen from a simple sports brand into a cultural symbol in the hearts of fans is also inseparable from the deep binding of a series of classic moments created by Jordan.

Back to the present, when PUMA uses a perfect time trajectory, Hali 1 deeply imprinted into the memories of fans with a series of moments and pictures in this year's finals, it can also help itself maximize the conversion benefits of sales and brand voice in the market.

Source: NBA official website

When Nike is still looking for the next Kobe, James, Adidas keeps trying around Edwards and others with an infinitely closer design language, while PUMA uses a playoff journey to connect the evolutionary path of player expression and brand language.

This may not determine the ownership of the basketball consumer market in an instant, but in the long-term order, this blow is sharp enough.