Sports Shoes With Stories to Tell

BBDO New York creates museum-style audio tour for sneakerheads at Foot Locker.

With trainer tech and culture having advanced to the stage where a sports shoe is not just a sports shoe but a narrative with back story and personality, it’s a smart move to market a shoe with a 'voice', via a spot of personalised, in-store audio enhancement. So BBDO have come up with an audio tour for browsing sneakerheads who want to hear the tales that trainers want to tell.

On entry into more than 300 stores around the US, shoppers will get a notification on their smartphones that the tour is available. Select shoes will display a code that can be entered into shoppers’ mobile devices and will unlock the story behind each sneaker. The recordings feature interviews with designers, journalists and athletes, who reveal the cultural significance, inspiration and technology in each shoe. For example, former NBA champ Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier gives a commentary on the creation of the Puma Clyde (below).

Extending the concept of each store being a museum that displays carefully curated objects of desire, the campaign tag line is ‘Approved’ – as “only the best of the best make it to the store”.