COLLABORATION
Connecting performance, responsibility and culture
What happens when three very different areas of expertise are brought together around one creative idea?
RÆBURN partnered with Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team and PUMA on an ambitious collaboration connecting the highly engineered world of Formula One with global sportswear and RÆBURN’s pioneering approach to responsible design.
The opportunity was bigger than creating another motorsport collection. It was about finding a common language between three partners, and building a creative system capable of moving from Formula One racewear to RÆMADE one-offs, commercially produced apparel and footwear, retail experience and live making.
Formula One is a world shaped by performance. Materials are specialised, garments have precise functions and every component exists for a reason.
PUMA brought another dimension: the capability to translate ideas through global sportswear, footwear and manufacturing.
RÆBURN brought a third perspective.
Our role was to connect these different worlds through design — identifying where performance, material innovation and responsible thinking could genuinely inform one another rather than simply sit alongside each other.
That required more than a visual collaboration.
It meant developing an idea flexible enough to operate across different products, different scales and different experiences, while remaining coherent from beginning to end.
Formula One is a world shaped by performance. Materials are specialised, garments have precise functions and every component exists for a reason.
PUMA brought another dimension: the capability to translate ideas through global sportswear, footwear and manufacturing.
RÆBURN brought a third perspective.
Our role was to connect these different worlds through design — identifying where performance, material innovation and responsible thinking could genuinely inform one another rather than simply sit alongside each other.
That required more than a visual collaboration.
It meant developing an idea flexible enough to operate across different products, different scales and different experiences, while remaining coherent from beginning to end.
RÆBURN’s RÆMADE, RÆDUCED and RÆCYCLED methodology provided the framework.
At one end of the project were the RÆMADE MASTERPIECES: one-of-one garments and accessories created in the RÆBURN studio from race suits worn during the 2022 season by Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and members of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team pit crew.
These materials arrived with extraordinary specificity.
They had been designed for performance, worn within Formula One and carried the provenance of the people and environment they came from. Our task was to preserve that character while completely reconsidering their purpose.
At another scale, deadstock Nomex® racewear material was translated into street-ready apparel, taking a material associated with the technical requirements of motorsport and introducing it into a different design context.
The collaboration extended further into footwear through limited editions of PUMA’s VELOPHASIS and SPIREX.
One creative framework was therefore able to move across craft, product and performance — from unique studio-made pieces to a broader commercial collection.
At one end of the project were the RÆMADE MASTERPIECES: one-of-one garments and accessories created in the RÆBURN studio from race suits worn during the 2022 season by Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and members of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team pit crew.
These materials arrived with extraordinary specificity.
They had been designed for performance, worn within Formula One and carried the provenance of the people and environment they came from. Our task was to preserve that character while completely reconsidering their purpose.
At another scale, deadstock Nomex® racewear material was translated into street-ready apparel, taking a material associated with the technical requirements of motorsport and introducing it into a different design context.
The collaboration extended further into footwear through limited editions of PUMA’s VELOPHASIS and SPIREX.
One creative framework was therefore able to move across craft, product and performance — from unique studio-made pieces to a broader commercial collection.
The strength of the project came from the differences between the collaborators.
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team brought the engineering culture, technical environment and materials of Formula One.
PUMA brought global expertise in sportswear, footwear and product design.
RÆBURN brought responsible design thinking, material experimentation and RÆMADE craft.
The creative opportunity existed in the space between them.
Rather than asking each partner to contribute an isolated element, the project connected those capabilities so they could influence the outcome together.
For RÆBURN, this is an important part of successful collaboration: understanding what each organisation uniquely brings, finding the shared territory, and creating a framework in which those differences become an advantage.
The collaboration culminated in an activation at PUMA’s flagship store on Carnaby Street in London.
Christopher Raeburn joined Lewis Hamilton and George Russell for a conversation exploring Formula One, responsible design and the thinking behind the project, followed by a live upcycling workshop.
Remaining MASTERPIECE off-cuts became the material for another act of making, with Hamilton and Russell using them to create unique pocket T-shirts during the workshop.
It was a small detail that captured the wider philosophy of the project.
Rather than simply presenting the finished collection, the activation opened up the process behind it allowing material, making and conversation to become part of the audience experience, as a result the methodology became visible.
Complex collaborations need a clear creative centre.
Across this project, RÆBURN worked at the intersection of three very different organisations, connecting specialist materials, global product capability and responsible design through a coherent creative approach.
Our contribution spanned creative direction, rethinking material innovation and RÆMADE design, helping translate an initial idea across one-of-one pieces, apparel, footwear and physical experience.
That ability to move between scales is fundamental to the RÆBURN approach.
We can work closely with an individual garment and understand the possibilities contained within its construction, then step back and consider how the same thinking can inform a much broader product or brand experience. The objective is coherence without uniformity, ensuring every expression feels connected to the same central idea while allowing each partner’s expertise to remain visible.
Across this project, RÆBURN worked at the intersection of three very different organisations, connecting specialist materials, global product capability and responsible design through a coherent creative approach.
Our contribution spanned creative direction, rethinking material innovation and RÆMADE design, helping translate an initial idea across one-of-one pieces, apparel, footwear and physical experience.
That ability to move between scales is fundamental to the RÆBURN approach.
We can work closely with an individual garment and understand the possibilities contained within its construction, then step back and consider how the same thinking can inform a much broader product or brand experience. The objective is coherence without uniformity, ensuring every expression feels connected to the same central idea while allowing each partner’s expertise to remain visible.
The partnership resulted in a collection spanning apparel and limited-edition footwear, a series of one-of-one RÆMADE MASTERPIECES, and a live retail activation in central London.
But perhaps the more useful outcome was the model demonstrated by the collaboration.
Three organisations with very different capabilities were able to create something none would have produced independently.
Formula One performance materials became a platform for experimentation. RÆMADE craft sat alongside globally produced sportswear. Product connected with footwear, retail and live making.
Different disciplines and different scales were held together by one creative system.
For RÆBURN, that is the opportunity within collaboration: bring the right capabilities together, find the idea that connects them, and build a system that allows each partner to make it stronger.
But perhaps the more useful outcome was the model demonstrated by the collaboration.
Three organisations with very different capabilities were able to create something none would have produced independently.
Formula One performance materials became a platform for experimentation. RÆMADE craft sat alongside globally produced sportswear. Product connected with footwear, retail and live making.
Different disciplines and different scales were held together by one creative system.
For RÆBURN, that is the opportunity within collaboration: bring the right capabilities together, find the idea that connects them, and build a system that allows each partner to make it stronger.
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Christopher Ræburn Founder & Creative Director RÆBURN Follow Christopher Instagram LinkedInOur project with PUMA and Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team brings with it enormous pride; we've been able to bring the very best of our RÆMADE, RÆDUCED and RÆCYCLED ethos to two incredible brands and the outcome is a radical move on from anything we've ever worked on before.
From the RÆMADE Masterpieces, crafted in our East London studio through to the broader collection, manufactured in close partnership with Puma each item in the range has a special story and a reason for being.
At RÆBURN we've always sought to disrupt, innovate and inspire and I believe this project pushes our focus on Responsible Design further than ever before.
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