Come and play at Nike Korea's Playground For All

A new film and experiential campaign has launched for Nike Korea’s inclusive Playground For All, directed by Paul Bruty and Luke Nuto of The Glue Society.

The integrated project features a new playground designed by the art and directing collective, specifically created to make activity more inclusive for all students.

In Korea, there are generations of kids who have grown up feeling unwelcome in the world of sport. While the best players hog the playground, the boys and girls who are less athletic just watch on from the side-lines. Nike wanted to change all that. So, we were commissioned to create the Playground for All. A mixed-use sporting playground where the normal rules don’t apply.

The Glue Society’s Luke Nuto says, “We were asked to design a Playground for All that would encourage participation to reluctant teens who would usually feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in a sporting environment. In particular, Korean girls are generally resigned to school life looking in from the sporting side-lines. But in the name of progress, Nike wanted to change all that.”

The Glue Society was commissioned by Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo and Nike Korea to create a unique inclusive playground, called the Playground for All. The idea was to create a fun and inviting space that disrupts convention, encouraging kids to step out onto the playground and try new sports, with the goal of progress over perfection. 

The unique playground design brought together multiple disciplines: basketball, football, baseball and running. But broke the rules to evoke a freedom to disrupt the normal sporting codes, and the status quo. 

Says Paul Bruty of the Glue Society, “We took the designs of a basketball court, football pitch, baseball diamond and running track and combined them into one. To create a structure that could support basketball hoops, football goals and baseball netting, we extended the court markings into the vertical space. A bright palette contrasted the surrounding utilitarianism of the school - marking the difference between the old and new way of thinking."

The playground was installed under the shroud of darkness. The following day, the students at Yongma Middle School in Korea were surprised to find that their playground had been turned into a completely new playground, Playground for All.  We introduced the kids to the new Playground for All with an action-packed day of play featuring Nike athletes and ambassadors. All of which guided the children through a day of inclusivity and affirmation in celebration of the campaign line, Progress Is Never Done.

The film Playground for All documents all the real moments of their fear, joy and achievements to showcase that the more they play together, the more possibilities they discover. To encourage a mixed-media approach, we gave each of the kids disposable cameras for them to capture the event through their eyes.