Adidas stepped back onto the boards and re-entered the basketball sneaker wars through the NBA 2023/24 season with a social campaign for its AE1 shoe which leveraged ambassador Anthony Edwards’ charisma and swagger as he and his Minnesota Timberwolves teammates blazed a trail through the league.
Objective
The aim was fairly straightforward and direct: launch the brand’s new AE1 Anthony Edwards’ signature shoe, boost adidas’ basketball market share and shake up the sector.
Activation
This effortlessly cool campaign, developed in harness with creative agency Johannes Leonardo, plays on the young shooting guard’s casual swagger, charismatic confidence and positive play (even in high-stress, high-risk situations) and associates these traits to his AE1 signature shoe.
Running entirely on social (initially without paid support), a series of social spots and stills rolled out from pre-season through to playoffs blending artwork and copywriting to create a cool, surreal and unique brand/product world which reflects Edwards’ casual confidence. The knock-on effect is that the campaign also imbues Edwards’ signature shoes with his charisma.
The ads even saw Edwards casually lacerate competitor brands as Adidas, something of a challenger brand in the basketball space, reignited the sneaker wars. They even links Edwards to Michael Jordan – the NBA’s greatest player and Nike’s greatest ever shoe-salesman.
The slow burn campaign began with a simple September teaser ahead of the start of the 2023/24 NBA season.
View this post on Instagram
It introduced the creative’s art approach which is bathed in an orangey/pink colour the agency describes as ‘Georgia peach’: which matches Edwards’ slangy southern accent and which Johannes Leonardo states is a tribute to the athlete’s mother and grandmother – the colourway also appears in the AE1 ‘With Love’ model.
View this post on Instagram
The ads, directed by Kevin Onda Leyva, also feature unusual camera angles and pans, alongside slightly odd visual effects and sounds.
A low controversy official launch spot, titled ‘AKA’, rolled out in October 2023 to promote the AE1 and act as a player and product introduction aligned to the start of the NBA regular season. It hints at what was to come as Edwards looks to the camera and says: “They said I got a little buzz going. Believe that!”
@theanthonyedwards_ Kids, when they say you can’t, tell ‘em Ant did. The AE 1 is available tomorrow at adidas.com and select adidas stores. @adidas #AE1 #BelieveThat #adidasbasketball ♬ original sound – Anthony Edwards
Things got more serious in the follow-up ‘Sneak Diss’ spot – which came in two versions – shows how this creative approach helps the endorser’s charismatic confidence explode out of the screen. The ad’s ‘censored’ lines are specific references to rival respective debut signature models for LaMelo Ball (Puma), Ja Morant (Nike), Luka Dončić (Jordan) and LeBron James (Nike). An ‘uncensored’ version was later posted by the brand and player. To add to the sense of authenticity, Edwards’ casual provocation was assisted by his real life friend from his home town of Atlanta Nick Maddox.
SNEAK DISS UNCENSORED- ADIDAS X ANTHONY EDWARDS | AE 1 from onda on Vimeo.
In January 2024, ‘Believe’ added to the attitudinal mix by including a touch of bleeped out swearing and further spots and edits dropped through the season promoting product benefits, new models and reacting to Playoffs wins – further building the player and product iconography.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Then, on 31 May, following Edwards’ Timberwolves elimination by Dallas, Adidas rolled out a defiant, quick-response spot aimed directly at the media naysayers: including rapper Cam’ron and retired NBA star Carmelo Anthony who both criticised the team and the player in their respective podcasts (‘It Is What It Is’ and ‘7PM in Brooklyn’). The spot even includes their remarks in its visuals, as they debate whether or not he is worthy of being the face of the league.
View this post on Instagram
“Those of us working on the business right now grew up on basketball ads in the early 90s and 2000s, and grew up within basketball culture. And, you know, at its best, it’s bold, it’s brash, it’s full of attitude and personality. And I think as we evaluated [Edwards’] positioning, that’s very much who he is as well. So that kind of gave us the confidence to behave in the way we’re behaving.”
Adidas Basketball Senior Brand Director Paul Webber
Sure, on the surface this fairly low budget campaign appears simple and straightforward. Especially when compared to some of the dramatic, expensive, blockbuster hoops ads of the recent past.
But it authentically (and seemingly effortlessly) succeeds in blending the shoe (and the brand) with the character of an athlete ambassador who seems destined to become the face of the league.
And in a marketing world where sport blends with art, culture, entertainment, fashion, music and style, being ‘the face of the NBA’ is an extremely powerful and influential position.
It might just be a new addition to the already impressive portfolio of great basketball advertising
The campaign is certainly generating plenty of praise on social media.
The 22-year-old Edwards – who played college hoops for Georgia, was the first pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and whose Timberwolves fell at the final hurdle to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Western Conference Finals – looks set to become a game-changing force in the long-running basketball sportswear brand battle.
But does this seemingly soft, relatively low key campaign deliberately seek to restart a more direct, in-your-face phase of the sneaker wars?
Well, according to Adidas Basketball Senior Brand Director Paul Webber, “Edwards’ abundant charisma gave the brand the confidence to be provocative.
It certainly takes plenty of confidence to show shoes from rival brands in your own ads.
The basketball space is extraordinarily competitive: indeed, it currently includes more than 25 athlete signature/custom shoes across 11 rival brands.
But for decades Adidas has struggled to gain a serious hoops foothold or eat into the category-leading Nike/Jordan brand/s share. According to a 2023 report by RunRepeat, 65% of NBA players wore Nike in the 2022-23 season.
But with a combination of segment focus, great design and great marketing, rivals are beginning to gain significant market share.
In response to notable segmented successes from upstart brands (like Hoka and One in the running space), Nike has already been forced to respond which a change to its overall company strategy and adjusting its footwear approach – including scaling back on classic models like the Air Force 1 – and refocus around newer products.
With this Adidas/Edwards success – surely the AE1 has a strong case to win Sneaker of the Year? – might Nike’s pro-basketball dominance start to fade?