Young Athletes (0~10 yr) is one of the fastest-growing consumer segments for Nike China. To get more kids to play sports (and as a result fall in love with the brand), Nike tasked W+K to own Children’s Day with a big idea that would inspire kids to unleash their competitive spirit when playing sports. The biggest challenge came from overprotective Chinese parents who don’t want their kids to get hurt playing sports.

The “Badge of Honor” was a series of specially designed bandages available for free after the purchase of Nike “Young Athlete” products at Nike retail stores in China. Four sets of 14 bandages were designed for basketball, running, football and skateboarding. They were packaged in specially designed sleeves that unfolded into comic strips that told fictional stories of young athletes who played hard, fell down and found the courage to get back up again.

On the packages, we included links to animated versions of the stories we created, featuring Nike athlete cameos such as Su Bingtian, China’s best sprinter; Zhao Lina, the goalkeeper of the China Women’s football team; Zhang Guowei, popular high jumper; and Yi Jianlian, veteran basketball player.