GLITCH is both a brand new football boot concept AND a brand new route to market for adidas.

The product itself breaks the rules, featuring an inner shoe for perfect fit and a laceless outer skin that offers perfect ball control, but is also interchangeable allowing players to express their own style.

The designs, the name, the packaging, the launch – every single facet was co-created with football influencers. They fed back on every aspect and made choices that were bolder, pushing the boundaries of the brand. They sat in the room with adidas, their agencies and creatives. They owned it.

At launch they handed out unique codes to let fans access (and purchase). And they still have an active role in running it. Influencers attend all fitting sessions and get on the pitch with new customers. They man the support channel. And they contribute content to drive the GLITCH community.

This new football boot is ONLY available for purchase through a mobile app, designed and built to make the boot a must-have for the next generation of football stars - urban street players whose freestyle play is as dependent on the style as it is the score.

We intentionally started small, with a core group of influencers and urban footballers in London. This allowed the community to grow gradually and organically.

Influencers were empowered and highly engaged throughout, actively helping to shape the community by deciding who became a part of it and contributing towards the customer support and homepage sections of the app with peer-to-peer advice, product demos and promotional User Generated Content.

There were reward and value exchange mechanics built into the app too, encouraging interaction and engagement to exist beyond a single purchase with free skins and extra referral codes on offer for the most active users.