Yard (SidLee) paid tribute to Greater Paris for Air Max Day

Cristina Blanaru Ads, Creativity

Yard staged 2 events for Nike’s international Air Max Day 2018, for the unveiling of brand’s latest model of sneakers, Air Max 270. For that, Nike and Yard decided to cross over city lines into the Greater Paris region, heading to French capital’s outlying suburbs. With support from several French influencers, the brand and its agency installed pop-up shops in building entryways’ in neighborhoods just outside Paris, giving residents an exclusive sneak peak at the Air Max before it hit stores.

A game-changing way of going about business, the new model flips tradition on its head and allows for influence and exclusivity to take hold outside of Paris, before working their way to runways and swanky stores. More and more trends are popping up in the suburbs, where the stage is being set for tomorrow’s fashions. With this premise in mind, Nike and Yard decided to launch the new Air Max 270 where styles are being born. With the help of 2 icons who grew up in Grand Paris: actor Lucas, who is also an affiliate of the rap group PNL (Corbeil-Essonnes) and rapper/entrepreneur Mac Tyer (Aubervilliers), the brand and its agency ventured beyond city lines to target today’s trendsetters.

Nike’s Air Max Day campaign continued with Nike ON AIR, a series of design workshops held in 6 major cities around the world, reuniting sneakerheads, brand afficianados and the greater public.

The Paris event used Grand Paris as its theme, and offered a special contest, which gave participants the chance to design their own version of the Air Max shoe, using their city as inspiration – a rare opportunity to become a brand designer. The winning design, revealed May 14, is a new Air VaporMax Plus, which will be available in stores April 2019.

For the events, Yard gathered together 4,000 visitors in 2 days, while the specially organized contest attracted 2,300 entries, had 150 semifinalists and 3 finalists.

In addition to the pop-up stores, YARD launched a parallel national print and digital campaign for Nike featuring French trail blazers from Grand Paris: rappers Rémy (Aubervilliers) and Moha La Squale (Paris), comedian Ohmondieusalva (Etampes); director Lucchino Gatti (Soisy-sous-Montmorency), boxer Bambi (Issy les Moulineaux), and biker Michay (L’Haÿ-les-Roses).

The campaign helped selling 30,000 pairs of sneakers since the launch.

Credits :

  • Creative House: Yard Agency, Paris, France
  • Co-Founders / Managing Directors / Creative Directors: Tom Brunet & Yoan Prat Creative Lead: Güllit Baku
  • Art Directors: Arthur Oriol , Yoann Guerini
  • Account Manager: Yohana Mehretab
  • Project Director: Alice Lemoigne
  • Production: Arnaud Orengue
  • Video Production: Miles TV