Entertainment November 30, 2016
Rihanna has won plenty of awards for her chart-topping music, but now she’s being honored for her business abilities.
She has become the first woman to win “Shoe of the Year” and took the prize at the Footwear News Awards for her wildly popular Fenty Creeper sneakers.
It only took three hours for the first batch of the $140 shoes to sell out when they debuted in September 2015 and since then the sneakers, created with German brand Puma, have continued to be a best-seller.
Rihanna’s partnership with Puma has expanded to include the release of other shoe designs, including a holiday-themed color scheme for the Creeper.
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“In my wildest dreams, I never would have imagined an honor like Shoe of the Year,” Rihanna told Footwear News. “It means so much to me to make a mark like this in the shoe and sneaker industry and to have so many people share my love for the Creeper.”
Showing her business and creative smarts, Rihanna didn’t just brand the shoe with her name. Instead, she came armed to Puma’s meetings with creative ideas and combined her bold rebellious style with the product. Then, she used her social media platform to build excitement for the shoe, which fuses sport and style.
“She’s bought an energy and excitement that would have been impossible for us as a brand to accomplish,” said Adam Petrick, Puma’s global director of brand and marketing. “She has an immense following and when she asks her following to participate in something, they do.”
Puma’s bottom line saw the benefit of Rihanna’s hands-on involvement. In 2015 when Rihanna’s Creepers first released, the German company’s fourth quarter earnings surpassed analyst predictions with around $975 million in sales, according to Bloomberg Business. This is up 17 percent from the fourth quarter earnings in the previous year.
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And this proved to be a good financial move for Rihanna too because this year she placed fifth in Forbes’ 2016 list of richest celebrities under 30, making $75 million dollars from a combination of her music and endorsement deals with Dior, Samsung, Stance and Puma.
With her new Fenty x Puma line, RiRi joins the likes of other superstars who have their own fashion lines, including Gwen Stefani, Zendaya, Madonna and Beyoncé, who just released her new holiday-themed loungewear.
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Her win at these awards saw Rihanna dethrone fellow pop star Kanye West whose Yeezy Boost 350 sneaker with Adidas won the 2015 Shoe of the Year prize.
Having conquered the music industry, RiRi is now ruling the fashion scene as well and is now undisputed as the “Queen of Shoes.”
