PUMA/CSM's limited edition range available August 1st 2007

Central Saint Martins is a lucky institution. Not only is it the only fashion college in the whole of the UK which is given a slot to showcase work by its MA students during London Fashion Week, but last February CSM secured a sponsorship deal with PUMA which included a design competition for students on the MA menswear course to redesign classic PUMAs and 10 shortlisted designs were selected in December 2006 and then appeared on the catwalk at LFW.

From those 10 designs three winners were selected and PUMA has now turned the prototypes into ranges limited to 1500 pairs each. August 1st will see them go on sale in PUMA flagships worldwide and here in the UK they will be exclusively available from PUMA's Carnaby Street shop priced £110 each, so if you can't get to Carnaby you'll have to get a friend on our message board, Threads http://www.fuk.co.uk/threads to help you out.

As well as the students getting their designs manufactured and into shops, PUMA has been pretty generous with the prize money it's handed over. The top prize with £8000 in cash has been awarded to Georgy Baratashvili for his re-design of PUMA's London Trail Boot, second prize and £4,000 in cash goes to Louise Markey for her redesign of the PUMA Aerial +, and third prize and £2,000 in cash goes to Jesper Borjesson for a redesign of the PUMA Tatau Mid.

Not sure exactly how much cash from the sales will go to the Central Saint Martins PUMA bursary fund which has recently been set-up, but we're told it is a "significant contribution" from each sale. For 2008, PUMA has announced it is launching a new competition for Central Saint Martins students to design performance sportswear and the apparel and accessory designs will feature on the MA catwalk in February 2008 and then be showcased at the Bejing Olympic Games.

Words: Marian Buckley

www.puma.com/centralsaintmartins