Forty monks laced up for a marathon they will never run.
At Thiksey Monastery in Ladakh, Puma Indiaphotographed 40 Buddhist monks in the brand's new Deviate PURE NITRO running shoe.
Puma has the race sponsorships in India but not the specialist-runner reputation that Asics holds, so it went shopping for credibility somewhere older.
The effort was made for a campaign called "Meditation in Motion," arguing that running and meditation both demand total focus.
The image series arrives ahead of the Ladakh Marathon's 13th edition, which opens on September 10.
Puma is now in its third year as the race's official sportswear partner.
The shoe itself comes with specifics that read almost clinical against the setting.
It weighs 220 grams and runs plateless, with NITROFOAM cushioning, engineered mesh, and PUMAGRIP traction.
Puma sells it as a tempo shoe, 30 grams lighter than the plated Deviate NITRO 4.
Six campaign frames place these details alongside monks in maroon robes, photographed inside a monastery that dates to the 15th century.
"Movement and meditation may take different forms but lead to a state of complete focus," Ramprasad Sridharan, managing director of Puma India, said in a press release.
Marathon founder Chewang Motup Goba described the terrain in blunter terms.
"You cannot fight the mountain — understand and embrace it," he shared.
The comparison holds up better here than it would elsewhere.
The Silk Route Ultra covers 122 kilometers, starting at Kyagar village in Nubra Valley at roughly 10,700 feet.
It finishes at Khardung La, 17,618 feet up and higher than Everest Base Camp.
Puma has supplied race apparel and gear since 2024, and last year's edition drew a record 6,600-plus runners from 30 countries.
Organizers expect more than 10,000 visitors for the 2026 edition.
This number gives Puma an audience already primed to make the running-meditation connection.
A New MD and a Nine-Month Reset
The shoe is doing more work than the campaign lets on.
Puma has spent the past nine months repositioning its India business on sports performance.
Ramprasad Sridharan took over as managing director in December 2025, part of a leadership reset at the group level.
"Meditation in Motion" looks like an early sign of where this new direction is headed.
Renting spiritual authority from a monastery is one way to manufacture running credibility.
The alternative is the kind of race record Asics has built at the Tata Mumbai Marathon since 2008.
Puma's own results haven't converted the same way yet.
Marketing professor Ashita Aggarwal of SP Jain Institute of Management and Research says the imagery moves faster than any spec sheet.
"Symbols transfer meaning faster than product claims can," she explained.
Whether the transfer holds, she added, depends on whether Puma's relationship with the region and the race survives scrutiny.
The same test applies to any brand positioning that borrows meaning before the results exist.
The $6.5 Billion Market Math
Puma is counting on India's runners to read spiritual imagery as proof of focus.
The market data shows two audiences growing at once, one for performance gear and one for mindfulness.
India's sneaker market was valued at $3.98 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $6.53 billion by 2034, according to IMARC Group.
Running gear sits in a separate IMARC category that includes footwear, apparel, accessories, and trackers.
It reached $2.5 billion in 2025 and is projected to hit $4.9 billion by 2034.
The Deviate PURE NITRO campaign sits where running and wellness meet, giving Puma one story for two audiences and a single production budget.
Puma's setup points to three plays other sponsors can run:
- Borrow credibility from places that carry culture: A location with genuine history carries a claim that outlasts any single endorsement deal.
- Match the imagery to a real category gap: Borrowed authority reads as earned when it covers a genuine weakness in the brand's own lineup.
- Attach the creative to a fixed calendar date: A marathon that returns every year gives a single set of images a reason to resurface each season instead of expiring after one push.
Remember that the categories compounding fastest in India right now sit outside sport altogether, in the wellness habits that runners already have.
Our Take: Does Borrowed Stillness Wear Off?
A campaign can rent a place's meaning for one season, but a monastery doesn't get a marketing budget to renew next year.
We think it wears off, and maybe faster than Puma expects.
Reuse this move for the 14th edition of the marathon, and the images stop feeling special.
Any location loses its charge the third time a brand shoots there.
The fix is a commitment that Thiksey can keep, whether or not Puma prints another photograph.
A trail fund, a scholarship, anything with a receipt attached.
This is the version of this campaign we would want to write about again next September.
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