To celebrate Nike’s 50th anniversary, the US sportswear behemoth teamed up with LA-based creative company BUCK to bring 50 years of iconic athletic artefacts into an accessible, augmented reality (AR) experience for people in Nike stores worldwide.
The initiative’s objective was to capture the spirit of DNA (Department of Nike Archives) and the in-store experience featured significant artefacts from 11 Nike product stories to engage consumers over Nike’s legacy.
In terms of the initiative’s mechanic, consumers were invited and encouraged to use the QR scanner on their smartphone to unlock culturally significant artefacts in Nike stores around the world: revealing a virtual box and collection of key Nike inventions viewable via immersive ‘WebAR’ and ‘Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM)’ technology.
The artefacts included in the project ranged from prototypes and original designs for Nike’s Track Spike, Waffle Iron and Pegasus shoes to the original ‘Swoosh’ design by Carolyn Davidson.
The initiative saw Nike partner with agency Buck and AR specialists Zappar and involved 17 3D-scanned assets and a further six artefacts scanned from 2D to 3D which were then optimised for a real-time AR experience on mobile devices.
Visitors could then explore the artefacts through touch gestures and the app’s UI in what BUCK believes is “the future of storytelling within the retail space.”
The 17 items 3D scanned for the initiative were:
> Prototype Spike (by Bill Bowerman)
> Steve Prefontaine Prototype Spike (by Bill Bowerman)
> Track Spike (by Bill Bowerman and worn by Steve Prefontaine)
> The Original Waffle Iron
> Vintage Waffle Iron
> Moon Shoe (by Bill Bowerman and worn by Pat Tyson)
> Pegasus (M)
> Air Pegasus ‘89
> Air Pegasus 2000
> Air Swoopes (autographed by Sheryl Swoopes)
> Special Make-up Shoe (by Joan Benoit)
> Layered Air Experiments (by Frank Rudy)
> Prototype of Air Max
> Gas Test Bag (modified by Frank Rudy)
> Mercurial Inspiration Prototype Shoe
> Nike Mercurial SG
> Mercurial Colorway Prototype
The 6 items 2D mapped into 3D:
> Waffle Trainer in ‘Hot Waffles to Go’
> Original Windrunner Sketch (by Diane Katz)
> Nike Sports Research Lab Brochure
> LA Campaign City Building (featuring Joan Benoit Samuelson)
> Original Swoosh Design (by Carolyn Davidson)
> First Blue Ribbon Sports Retail Storefront (at 3107 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, California)
Users are able to explore artefacts through touch gestures and the app’s UI in Nike stores worldwide – including Nike’s flagship ‘House of Innovation’ stores in Paris, Shanghai and New York – linked to bespoke in-store displays localised to 11 languages to enable Nike fans the world over to enjoy the experience.
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This inventive, heritage AR experience created a portal into Nike’s DNA archives and blended the past and the future for visitors to Nike stores.
Buck’s brief from the Nike Global Brand Experience team was “to bring the brand’s past, present and future to life in stores globally” and they asked for “an idea to capture the spirit of DNA (Department of Nike Archives) and to support the future of storytelling within a retail environment”.
Indeed, Nike had several stories it was keen to highlight related to the brand’s legacy and built around specific archive artefacts and the others were settled upon by the joint project team.
This approach and the technologies utilised have increasingly been used in museums and galleries as a fresh, enhanced way to access and engaging with collections an this initiative expanded that trend into the sports brand and retails worlds.
The initiative followed on from Nike 50th anniversary launch campaign led by Spike Lee’s ‘Seen It All‘ film.
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