L'observatoire Data & Créativité by iligo

Design your own Air Max

Nike is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development, manufacturing, and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed many brands that were forced to quickly find a way to stay connected to their communities. In fact, people were locked up at home for two months. Nike is one of those who choose to adapt their communication by using, among other things, the AR technology.
They made a partnership with the digital agency from Japan, AKQA to create a 56-page zine that allows Nike fans to get involved in the design of the new version of the iconic Nike Air Max.
The goal of this campaign was to accompany the release of the new Nike sneaker Air Max 2090, while making up for the lack of physical events due to the current context.
Japanese people are known for their creativity and their love for sneakers. This project connects Nike and their audience in a cultural way.

The concept Create with Air Max allows Nike fans to design the latest update of the Nike Air Max, which will come “to life” in real time.
They have to draw on black and white illustrations of the shoe, findable on the zine to be scanned with a smartphone.
After coloring the black and white illustration, an AR model of the shoe will be generated and will float around through the screen of the smartphone. The model will be adapted in function of what the user will draw on the blank model from the zine.
At the end of the drawing, the model can be shared on social media.

In order to make their concept possible, Nike and AKQE have used augmented reality (AR) technology in order to give to the fans an experience that would come the closest to reality.
The drawing made on the zine become 3-D that is floating on the smartphone and which is adapted to the user‘s pen, at its convenience.

1.000 copies of “Create with Air Max” were produced. Several of them were made by influencers from Japan and the zine was distributed in several stores in cities like Tokyo or Osaka.