Product launches are usually boring affairs: overnight stay in exotic locale, company expounds virtues of new product, eat fancy meal, interview relevant corporate spokespeople, fly home. And if the company is very lucky, you file a story singing said product’s praises.

 

To launch a new range of clothing for Nike, I worked closely with their agency The Fish Can Sing to create an event that broke that formula. We used a traveling exhibit from the Vitra Design Museum as the context for the launch. Meant for skateboarders and BMXers, the clothing was to appeal to urban nomads who went from activity to activity. Thus we tied the apparel to the nomadic theme of the exhibit, Living in Motion.

 

At the launch itself, I served as “design expert” giving a talk that tied the ideas of the show into issues in contemporary design and an architectural  take on skateboarding.  (Skateboarders are natural architects. Just look at how they use handrails and benches… .) The talk was met with raves from the journalists, who loved seeing their sports elevated in such a way. “Wow you totally get it,” was a quote from one after the launch. Of course the products got strong write-ups in the European press too.