The second half of July saw Nike Japan team up with AKQA’s Tokyo, Shanghai and New York offices to launch an AR-enabled printed zine called ‘Create With Air Max’.
The initiative’s objective is to enable users to customise the iconic shoe via a mixed reality experience which is a published work of fans’ stories and interviews by influencers such as fashion model/YouTuber Aoi Ihara, filmmaker Spikey John, hip-hop group KandyTown, and environmental activist Mona of No Plastic Japan.
Throughout the printed zine, readers find Air Max inspired creativity alongside a stylish set of black-and-white illustrations. Users are able to scan the blank shoes with a smartphone to generate a floating AR model. As the shoe is coloured in on the page, the 3D model changes to reflect the creation.
Once finished an animation of the design can be shared to social channels.
The zine dropped in mid July at Nike and Atmos stores in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka as 1000 free copies of the 56-page limited-edition zine were distributed to Nike stores across Japan and the colouring book offers a personalised experience that takes customisation to a whole new level.
The initiative targets the tight-knit creative and sneakerhead community in Japan and leans its focus towards a young female audience interested in sneakers, fashion and culture.
“AR requires a visual trigger,” explained Daniel Busch, associate creative director at AKQA. “At the same time, craftsmanship and design process are universally admired in Japan.”
The campaign was created by a multi-office team at AKQA which included Associate Creative Director Daniel Busch, Creatives August Ostberg and David Svedenstrom, Group Creative Director Tim McDonell, Designer and Art Director Matteus Faria, Brand Editor Shunsuke Mori, Motion Designer Zack Chua, Strategist Kasumi Mizoguchi, UX Designer Gabe Beck, Client Partner Hideaki Hara, Account Director Faris Raucci, Senior Project Manager Eiji Nakamura, Director of Technology Steven Gutteridge, Creative Technologists Buboy Paguio and Chewy Wu, plus Tech Manager Joe Jin with photography by Andrew Goldie.
Comment:
The idea here is to inspire and engage sneakerheads and Nike fans’ imaginations through the ‘uplifting spirit of Air Max’ and leverage the immersive entertainment and pop-culture diversions in such high demand in Japan in a culturally relevant and meaningful way.
This initiative emerged during Covid-19 restriction as whilst conceptualising the idea AKQA wanted to celebrate creativity but had to work within the strictures of the pandemic lockdown which limited commercial production and made innovative street events impossible.
But the marketing team understood that those in lockdown and isolation yearned to explore creativity in new ways, so the agency decided to turn the shoes into a blank canvas—in both senses of the word.
Links:
Nike
https://www.nike.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
https://www.instagram.com/nike/
https://twitter.com/nike
https://www.facebook.com/nike
AKQA
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