40th ANNIVERSARY of Air Force 1
WHAT WE DID
As Nike celebrated the Air Force 1’s 40th anniversary, the sneaker’s connection to hip-hop culture was a focal point. The year’s overarching theme was JOIN FORCES, “an open invitation to the next generation to embrace the unconventional, move with purpose, and to work smarter by creating together.” Through a cross-country, multiple-city tour, we shed light on places that serve as safe havens for curators of culture called “shelters of community.”
For this campaign, we were asked to take the franchise somewhere new while honoring its roots, and connect to Gen Z without losing the OGs. So we looked at the intersection of the two in order to unite an icon and a new kind of culture.
Creative Concepting
Photo & Video Production
Organic Social &
Integrated MediaApp Threads & Emails
OOH
Honoring the past, celebrating the present, and igniting the future were our three key strategies, and through them, we selected protagonists in each city that would JOIN FORCES over a common theme.
CREATIVE CONCEPTING
The birth of hip-hop in ’73 ignited a cultural revolution: music, art, dance, and fashion. Creatives of all disciplines—from the Bronx and beyond—JOIN FORCES within this genre. The Old School and New School JOINED FORCES in this shoot, with artists from multiple generations of hip-hop at a recreation of the Back to School Jam that started it all.
After its inception in ’99, the bling era became part of hip-hop’s visual identity, but was also a huge component of one’s individual identity. It’s a status symbol, a gauge of authenticity and skill, an opportunity to showcase personal style, and a representation of the rags-to-riches narrative popularized in rap music. In NOLA, bigger is always better and bling is always in. A group of creatives JOINED FORCES at our Second Line celebration to highlight New Orleans’ bright and bold contributions to hip-hop.
Slab culture is a deeply Southern subculture of auto enthusiasm; one that is nearly inseparable from the regional music that so heavily influences it. There, that expression of Black prosperity is met with the advent of another, more regionally original culture— the chopped and screwed subgenre of Houston rap. Our star-studded list of protagonists JOINED FORCES at our slab meetup, held at local legendary eatery, Burns Original BBQ.
PHOTO & VIDEO PRODUCTION
Cultural authenticators were vital to this campaign from start to finish, with people from each city represented in strategy, in front of and behind the camera, and in post production. We were intentional about collaborating with photographers and videographers who understood and were connected to the subcultures we wanted to document. To capture the essence of each community, we used both analog and digital equipment for dynamic individual, group, and product shots.
ORGANIC SOCIAL & INTEGRATED MEDIA
Most of the social media content was story-focused with product details woven in for city-specific shoes. Using language, themes, protagonists, locations, and styling reflective of each location showed the deep connection between the Air Force 1 as “the people’s shoe” and hip-hop culture across North America.
Photo and video content was shared across Nike and protagonist channels,
including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
APP THREADS & emails
App threads and emails were created for each individual city, following the same structure and storylines set for social media. There, more product-focused copy was included, with CTAs leading directly to shopping links. In addition to protagonist blurbs, shoe design inspiration had prominent placement in app and email content, giving us an opportunity to expand upon how cultural aesthetics influenced each city’s shoe. This was also an opportunity to utilize all of the great interview quotes.
Digital billboards went up in New York City on 34th Street and in Los Angeles at Circa LA. Our excitement was only matched (and maybe exceeded) by that of the talent, who took to social media to share videos of their reactions to seeing themselves on the big screens.
OOH
