To kick-off New Balance’s annual ‘Grey Day’, the Boston based sportswear brand premiered a long-form film called ‘Grey Days’ celebrating the colour’s origin as the brand’s signature shade. The seven-minute film, created in harness with new US agency American Haiku, celebrate Grey’s origin as the signature New Balance colour and tells seven stories about the brand’s reach into and influence on various sneaker subcultures.
The video pays homage to the brand’s history and impact on kicks culture both globally and within the MENA region, whilst exploring grey’s ubiquity and its appeal to people everywhere – from London supermodels, to dads in Ohio and Tokyo sneakerheads.
Objective
Like Nike’s ‘Air Max Day’ and Amazon’s ‘Black Friday’, each year New Balance declares 12 May as ‘Grey Day’: the Boston-based sports apparel brand annually dedicates the day to celebrating and honouring the signature colour that it has become known for worldwide.
Typically, it marks the day by unveiling various fresh grey silhouettes to keep the legacy colour at the centre of the brand conversation and position.
The umbrella aim is to reinforce New Balance’s ‘fearlessly independent’ positioning, its signature colour grey – which was originally a complement to the concrete and asphalt backdrop of road running – has long helped the brand stand out amongst its competitors.
Back in the 1980s, New Balance launched the 990 and 574 models: sports shoes with high quality and a grey suede upper. A pair of the 990 model cost $100 – expensive for the time – and thus the shoes became an object of desire. Some of those that could afford the price tag found they worked well with everyday clothing and regularly matched them with jeans and even more stylish and elegant outfits. New Balance has subsequently turned this into a brand legend claiming it was a focal point for the breakthrough that saw sneakers worn for things other than just sport.
Since then, grey shoes have been a staple of the New Balance portfolio and the brand continues to produce its classic designs alongside fresh models in what has become its signature shade.
The idea here, as with other recent Grey Day initiatives, is to use the colour and the day as creative canvas to reinforce the brand’s position and heritage and to promote its annual Grey Day new shoe and clothing capsule collection.
Activation
The idea behind the 2024 film is that the colour ‘grey’ embodies everything that makes New Balance stand out: reflecting its independent approach dedicated to quality and style.
Exploring New Balance’s deep roots and universal appeal, the web, social, PR and in-store initiative revolves around a ‘Grey Days’ film – shot in black and white on 16mm – showing the brand’s leadership role in various subcultures.
It offers up a journey through New Balance’s history: from exploring its original running heritage, to its popularity in certain style subcultures from the DMV to Tokyo. The film offers up a set of vignettes of the lives and memories of those whose New Balance shoes are crucial to their everyday life and their passions.
The black and white frames are paired with atmospheric soundtrack resulting in the whole piece presenting shades of grey and it also features several sports and entertainment brand ambassadors: including UK Rapper Dave, New Orleans Saints defensive end Chase Young, and US skateboarding legend and Baker Skateboards Co-Founder Andrew Reynolds.
Teased from 1 May with 15-second cut down clips running across the brand’s own online platforms, the full seven-minute ‘Grey Days: New Balance History’ short film premiered on 10 May.
The hero film and its supporting social creative are linked by the hashtags #NewBalanceGreyDay, #NewBalanceHistory and #GreyDays and assets seek to drive consumers online to the brand’s Grey Shop and a special website at https://newbalance.pl/greydays.
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“This film celebrates not only what Grey means to us as a brand, but also what it means to New Balance consumers. “It recognises sub-cultural New Balance fans who have stood by our brand and the emblem of Grey for generations. It also recognises the ubiquity of the colour grey, appealing to people everywhere from supermodels in London, to dads in Ohio, to sneaker connoisseurs in Toyko.”
New Balance Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Merchandising Chris Davis
Credits
The ideation and production was developed with agency American Haiku. Where the team was the result of a collaboration between Creative Directors Thom Glover and Daniel Wolfe, along with Elliott Power, Director of Photography Norm Li. While the Stray Studio (London) is responsible for the retro 1960s animation with cinematography and still photography by Samuel Bradley.
While some might see ‘grey’ as bland, non-descript and a bit dull and boring, this film – the first work for the brand from agency American Haiku – successfully adds a creative edge and a mythical strand to the sneaker maker’s history.
After all, the brand believes that ‘in a colourful world, grey is increasingly intriguing’. In fact, for New Balance, grey is versatile, timeless, always looks good and works well in combination with other colours: whether in sportswear, fashion, interior design or architecture.
This 2024 stylish and cinematic campaign follows on from the brand’s 2023 ‘Made In The USA: Grey Day’ campaign.