BRIEF
INITION were briefed by Iris Worldwide and Adidas to create an innovative digital activation for consumers to experience at the launch of their new 2017 football footwear franchise, Nemeziz. This experience had to align with the Nemeziz positioning of being the most progressive football boot ever made, and with their overarching brand campaign of “Here to Create” – allowing fans of Adidas Football to stand out and take part, turning them from consumers to creators.
SOLUTION
Our concept METAMORPHOSIS used the boot as the interface between the user and the digital content – by creating a one-of-a-kind interactive boot that would convert physical interactions into real time graphics.
The creative was born from both the design inspiration behind Nemeziz – the taping or wrapping performed by boxers, ballerinas and martial artists to increase strength, support and agility – and the actions and reflexes of the boot as it reacts to the pressures of the game, flexing and twisting as if it were alive.
Working with our design partners at Imagination Factory, prototype boots were designed to encase a range of sensors that would respond to the users’ actions. Digital art studio Kuva developed a realtime animation system that would allow the sensor data to generate the visuals in response to the physical manipulations of the boot.
INITION’s creative concept required the sound of the experience to be as important as the visuals – to ensure the user understood that the boot was reacting to them, the sound needed to be as responsive and immersive as possible. Working with Mixed Immersion, an interactive 3D soundscape was created using a technique called granular synthesis.
To complete the user journey, the installation featured a large screen and the Nemeziz Dust Storm boot on a plinth in front of it. As the boot is picked up, the digital on-screen boot mirrors it’s position, unwrapping and reforming, and reacting to the user as they press, bend and twist it.
RESULT
NEMEZIZ – METAMORPHOSIS was premiered at the Nemeziz brand launch event at Printworks, London in the early June, 2017. Installation reached over 160 people within 2 hours with over 1250 interactions in total.
…BOx full of boots
After several months of prototyping, building and delivery of several iterations of the project, INITION found themselves with a box full of unused left boots. With Adidas’s permission, these were donated to the EAFA, where they’ve been put to good use by the national and youth teams in their current campaigns.
Credits:
Agency: Iris Worldwide
Producer: Katie Grayson
Creative: Angelina Aleksandrovich
Developer: Pedro Sousa
Unity Developers: Kuva
Technology: Imagination Factory
Sound Design: Mixed Immersion