Design > Communication Design
BILLIE JEAN KING YOUR SHOES
TBWA\CHIAT\DAY, New York / ADIDAS / 2019
Awards:
Overview
Credits
Overview
Background
Our brief was to create an impactful, local experience around & during the US Open that would give adidas a platform to create positive change in sport for adidas’ creator audience - young female athletes in NYC. We wanted to use this moment and platform to spark a wider conversation about female athletes in sport. Our ultimate goal was to make adidas the most disruptive brand at the US Open.
Describe the creative idea
To show adidas’ effort and commitment to women in sports, we launched Here to Create Change, a campaign around the original creator of change: tennis legend Billie Jean King.
In 1973, Billie Jean King played the most important tennis match ever: The Battle of the Sexes. That day, she changed the male-dominated tennis establishment in a pair of blue adidas.
For the 45th anniversary, adidas could have re-released her shoe. But that's not how BJK would do it. She prefers to change things. So we did just that, and turned the most iconic adidas sneakers into blue BJKs.
At the U.S. Open we invited everyone to BJK their shoes – no matter what brand.
For the first time ever, a brand utilized other brands to launch a new shoe. And for someone who changed the game for good, using every other brand for good was the right thing to do.
Describe the execution
We turned the most iconic adidas shoes into Billie Jean King blue shoes. Then we invited people to transform their shoes - whether they're adidas, Nike, Reebok, Puma or Louis Vuitton- into King's blue three-striped sneakers, live at the US OPEN adidas store.
On August 27th, consumers walked in the adidas store and got their shoes transformed into BJK shoes for free at the hands of one of the best sneaker artist in the world, Jake Danklefs.
Using stencils and spray paint, we customized 220 pairs of shoes in which we recreated the zig zag pattern, made a vinyl graphic, laid that down onto the shoes and even recreated the tongue tag with BJK face on it.
Even Billie Jean King herself made her way to the adidas store at Flushing Meadows to sign the changed shoes and of course, to help BJK a couple of pairs.
List the results
People BJKed tons of shoes and even Stan Smith himself got his classic shoes BJKed. BJK shoes are now on sale on eBay for up to $2,500. Celebrities shared their BJK shoes like Kelly Clarkson, Angelique Kerber, Garbine Muguruza and etc.
After the campaign, adidas observed a 20% increase in tennis sales in the US and the Barricade, adidas tennis shoe, had a 103% increase in sales in the US if compared to Europe in the same period. + 100 million impressions and 250 news stories in every continent.
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