Nike wanted to take advantage of the holiday season at House of Hoops Harlem by offering a customization/personalization experience. Nike engaged Crack to bring this vision to life at the store.
The goal was for the customer to be able to select a tee-shirt or fleece of their preference, and then make it their own by personalizing with custom copy. To complete the experience, Nike wanted a full-size working Garment Conveyer Machine typically used at Dry Cleaners. The machine was built and installed in the half-court area of House of Hoops so that the customer could sort through all the different apparel options themselves.
PICK IT. MAKE IT. OWN IT.
The experience created extra traffic and excitement in the store in time for the holidays.
“The Customization experience really helped the store move a lot of apparel for the month of December…and the customers loved it. We had repeat customers on a daily basis customizing tees.” – Wil Paraison – GM HOH NYC
Lebron’s 7th shoe dropped this November. To promote the launch, Nike partnered with Crack to create an experience around the infamous Lebron powder toss. Each pinnacle door received a presentation built almost entirely from powder bottles, including a table in the shape of a 7 and presentation in the pro kicks cabinet that incorporated hundreds of bottles. Also included in the presentation was a replica mannequin of Lebron built to size, complete with authentic body art painted by the same artist that does Lebron’s tattoos – Jimmy Hayden.
For House of Hoops in Harlem, Crack created a larger than life image of Lebron in his powder toss stance. In addition to the graphic of Lebron, we included a looping video of the powder toss that we projected on new clear material that functions as a screen. The effect creates an optical illusion that produces a hologram-like image floating in midair.
For the August 6th launch of Nike’s Hyperize basketball shoe, they developed a campaign that highlighted Kevin Durant (aka Velvet Hoop), Mo Williams (aka Fog Raw), Andre Iguodala (aka Chief Blocka), and Rashard Lewis (AKA Ice-O). The ad is a throw-back to the style of early nineties hip-hop and features the athletes in jheri curls, fat gold chains, and Kid n’ Play shaped hairstyles.
Crack supported the Nike Hyperize launch at key pinnacle doors including Foot Locker’s flagship store in NY as well as the House of Hoops stores across the country in NY, LA, Chicago and New Jersey.
To play on the references to nineties hip-hop music, speakers, sound studio foam and TV monitors looping the TV ad were incorporated into the shoe presentation wall. Authentic road crates were abused, distressed and tagged with Hyperize taglines and then used as freestanding shoe pedestals throughout the stores. Old-school studio headphones were also dropped down from the ceiling and brought into the presentation as well to provide another connection point between the Hyperize shoes and the hip-hop music influence.
It was important to Nike that everything used in the Hyperize pinnacle door execution was authentic. Actual working speakers, sound studio foam, and headphones were curated and used rather than substituting two-dimensional graphics or fake cardboard props. The elements that required the highest attention to detail were the road crates. Nike wanted these to look like they had been on tour with the Hyperize band for years, so Crack had to develop a means to quickly distress these crates and make sure that it didn’t look fake to the consumer once it was brought into the store environment.
We typically work to keep the details of production behind the scenes, but we felt that this image was just too priceless not to share. This is hands down the best way to beat up road crates!
In order to promote his new movie, More Than A Game (MTAG), Lebron James and Nike are packing up and going on tour to host pre-screenings in several cities across the world. The movie tells the story of Lebron and his high-school team in their quest for a high school title. The movie not only highlights Lebron’s rise to national prominence in the sports world, but also focuses in on his coach and teammates at St.Vincent-St. Mary.
In addition to the movie screening, Nike is also hosting a community event in each city. Nike will bus in kids from area schools and provide food and entertainment. There are several tents around the event grounds such as: Nike ID to create custom shoes, a barbershop to get a free trim, temporary More Than a Game and Nike tattoos, interactive gaming, Nike Baller’s Network, a shoe cleaning station, DJ scratch school, and basketball challenges and games.
At each event, Nike will also have a POPUP retail store that showcases the newest product and highlights the new Lebron 7 shoes, which are set to be in-store this November. Nike partnered with Crack to bring this POPUP retail system to life on the grounds. Trucks containing the POPUP fixtures and product arrive in the evening, and in the morning of the event the retail space is set.
The first stop on the tour was on August 11th in Chicago, IL. Lebron and the MTAG cast arrived in the afternoon and took the stage for introductions and to discuss the movie. They also took questions from the Chicago media. Live music stage had local bands, drill team, rappers and performers throughout the day. The GS Boyz headlined with a show at the end of the day. The impromptu slam dunk contests were one of the highlights of the event and drew huge crowds. The event has received a lot of attention from the Chicago press.
