Sneakerheads are shoe fanatics with huge collections of the latest sneakers. We wanted to capture their attention during NBA All-Star Weekend, a highly saturated cultural moment viewed by passionate sneakerheads interested in basketball and style. The film was an integral part of Foot Locker’s brand pivoting. Before this campaign, past Foot Locker spots just targeted athletes. But now Foot Locker has pivoted its brand strategy towards appealing to sneakerheads, shoe obsessives that would pay more attention to a dunk contestant’s shoes than the actual dunk.

So we showed what sneakerheads really see when they look at the court. To further contextualize and imbed the spot into sneakerhead culture, the spot features cameos by celebrity sneaker designer Jerry Lorenzo and sneakerhead NBA player Lance Stephenson. To make the film especially topical, we aired a version of it on TV during the actual All-Star Dunk Contest, in addition to posting it online.

Foot Locker wanted to distinguish its self-aware individuality from all the other athletic/streetwear brands that take themselves too seriously. So to elevate the spot’s whimsically surreal tone, the film features the commercial debut of Slim Whitman’s “Indian Love Call,” a crooning 1952 love song that captures the essence of our sneakerheads’ quirky, dreamy perspective. The track’s unique feeling builds on our core idea of an intimate love affair between a sneakerhead and an epic pair of shoes.