Sneakers and Interactive Media Culture

I know this site’s been live for a few weeks now, but I figured that I still post it for those who may not know about it. The website was created by CODE AND THEORY.

Style Wars is the legendary hip-hop documentary and timeless film classic, the indispensable record of a golden age of youthful creativity and exploding hip hop subculture. Directed by Tony Silver.

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On the morning of 8 Nov, the phone at Clear Channel’s head office rang non stop. Concerned advertisers, agencies and business partners called to inform us of the messy pasting of A2 size posters on many ad panels all over the island. This massive vandalism of the bus shelter panels is believed to be the work of fanatic basketball fans.

Instead of causing distraught, these calls actually brought smiles to our faces. Clear Channel had actually “colluded” with these “vandals” over the weekend. 700 ad panels across the island were “hijacked” – instead of having a poster sit nicely inside the glass panel, film posters with LeBron James were slapped haphazardly onto the surface of the panels.

The LeBron James (who plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers) film posters were “wild-posted” to make it appear as if some mad basketball fans have hijacked the frames overnight. The idea is to do something naughty like wild-postings to disrupt the neat environment of Singapore and to impress the kids.

This “vandalism” campaign is a collaboration between Clear Channel and Nike to dominate the island by wild-posting 700 bus shelter ads, the first time a campaign of such magnitude and nature was executed in Singapore. The attention and concern the campaign brought pointed to its success. A new wave of vandalism with new film posters will hit town on 13 Nov.

The LeBron James “Chamber of Fear” campaign was a recent launch by Nike which features LeBron as the Newest Action Hero. The strategy is to establish LeBron as the “King” of the game and get the kids in Singapore to know about him. The creative inspiration came from the 1970s Hong Kong kung-fu movies and Japanese Anime films and pays homage to Asian-style film posters. Nike had a challenging task of using traditional outdoor media to execute the highly stylized campaign with deep connections to Asian roots.

Clear Channel was thus selected to deliver a high-impact, massive reach to their target audience – Singapore basketballers aged 13 to 20 years old. “The idea is to do something naughty like wild-postings to disrupt the neat environment of Singapore and stay in line with the street-feel of this LeBron James basketball campaign. This wild-posting execution was possible through collaboration with Clear Channel, who was willing to ‘risk the status quo’ and try out this new domination tactic with Nike,” said Ann Kositchotitana, Marketing Communications Manager of Nike Singapore. The two weeks campaign on Clear Channel ad panels ran from 6 Nov to 19 Nov. The LeBron James Chamber of Fear film posters were created by Wienden + Kennedy. Mindshare Singapore handled the media buying & the wild-posting outdoor strategy originated from Ogilvy RedCard. Other mediums that the campaign went on include TV, print, online (nikebasketball.com.sg) as well as film posters that are distributed at Nike retail stores.

Arcana Digital once again teamed up with Nike’s Creative Director Andy Walker in the US to put together another impressive fusion of slick 2d graphics, live action footage, CG character animation and dynamic particle effects to produce this three minute sequence.

“Some people see the world in black and white….And some people don’t!” was the ethos behind the video’s concept.

The purpose of the three minute sequence was to advertise Nikes personalised footwear and sports gear service which is currently available on line.

Watch the movie here.

Cool French sneaker blog.

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This is a pretty cool campaign on the Adidas site celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Superstar.

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The 2nd edition of the the Ice Creams are coming out this week.

Unfortunately, I can’t stand these shoes. What bothers me about the shoe is not only limited to the aesthetics of the shoe, but also the underlying marketing gimmick that these shoes represent. In my eyes, this is a sign that collecting sneakers is no longer about finding the rare old school joints or just finding a shoe that fits your flow. It’s about big business where savvy marketing creates such hype and demand around such a lame excuse for a shoe that everyone wants a pair. Sneakerheads need to open their eyes and get back to the basics because we shouldn’t be down with this ’shit for sale’.

[featured in YI]

JB Classics: Running his designer sneaker operation under the moniker “The Modern Day Cobbler”, JB’s independent sneaker line is wearable art. A division of The KDU global creative collective, JB Classics are stylish, unique, limited edition kicks you probably won’t see on many feet but your own.

Check it out.

Campaign was created by Odopod and Psyop.tv.

Check out the Nike Shoxploitation site.

I love these kicks. I found these images on 5th-dimension.info.

Click here for more info.

The China market is finally for real. To the country’s new consumers, Western products mean one thing: status. They can’t get enough of those Air Jordans

By MATTHEW FORNEY

Nike swung into action even before most Chinese knew they had a new hero. The moment hurdler Liu Xiang became the country’s first Olympic medalist in a short-distance speed event — he claimed the gold with a new Olympic record in the 110-m hurdles on Aug. 28–Nike launched a television advertisement in China showing Liu destroying the field and superimposed a series of questions designed to set nationalistic teeth on edge. “Asians lack muscle?” asked one. “Asians lack the will to win?” Then came the kicker, as Liu raised his arms above the trademark Swoosh on his shoulder: “Stereotypes are made to be broken.” It was an instant success. “Nike understands why Chinese are proud,” says Li Yao, a weekend player at Swoosh-bedecked basketball courts near Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Such clever marketing tactics have helped make Nike the icon for the new China. According to a recent Hill & Knowlton survey, Chinese consider Nike the Middle Kingdom’s “coolest brand.” Just as a new Flying Pigeon bicycle defined success when reforms began in the 1980s and a washing machine that could also scrub potatoes became the status symbol a decade later, so the Air Jordan — or any number of Nike products turned out in factories across Asia — has become the symbol of success for China’s new middle class. Sales rose 66% last year, to an estimated $300 million, and Nike is opening an average of 1.5 new stores a day in China. Yes, a day. The goal is to migrate inland from China’s richer east-coast towns in time for the outpouring of interest in sports that will accompany the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. How did Nike build such a booming business? For starters, the company promoted the right sports and launched a series of inspired ad campaigns. But the story of how Nike cracked the China code has as much to do with the rise of China’s new middle class, which is hungry for Western gear and individualism, and Nike’s ability to tap into that hunger.

Read more.