Sports brand Asics has appointed Imagination to deliver a hospitality venue for its partners, customers and guests during the London 2012 Olympic Games. As part of the brief, Imagination will design and deliver an Asics Olympic venue that aims to highlight the sports company’s brand to its partners – including retailers - customers and guests.
It will also showcase innovations in design and technology for athletes.
The Asics hospitality venue will remain open for its guests throughout the Olympic Games – which run from 27 July to 12 August – and will be a key part of its brand communication activity.
Imagination, appointed after a competitive pitch process, was selected to create a unique space that will remain open to guests throughout the duration of the Games.
Asics European marketing director Michael Price said: "Imagination showed how they would bring to life our founders’ philosophy that through sport you can inspire a generation. At our venue we’ll link our Sound Mind Sound Body ethos with the Olympic spirit to inspire our retailers, our athletes and everyday sports people."
Meanwhile, Imagination’s creative director Julian Baker said the aim was to inspire an interest in sport.
"The ASICS Olympic venue will engage a wide group of people, encourage participation and provide visitors with a real ASICS experience that embodies the spirit of the Games," he added.
What happens when the Armani aesthetic comes to a sneaker? Emporio Armani EA7 and Reebok have created the EA7/Reebok ZigTech line. The Zig-Tech line is Reebok's line of shoes with distinctive zig-zag soles and this latest iteration is a continuation of the Armani/Reebok partnership which includes activewear and shoes. The whole line has a bit of a sci-fi-meets-sportwear aesthetic. Shown above is the rather architectural ZigLace shoe. The Reebok ZigPump which comes in silver with glossy patent inserts has midfoot strap to keep the foot in place and the classic Reebok pump mechanism.
Adidas is teaming up with researchers from a broad range of disciplines to make its manfacturing Asia more sustainable.
The shoe and apparel company has partnered with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) to take a close look at its supply chain and develop projects to improve it.
The research team, led by Professor Aleksandar Subic, head of RMIT’s School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, will include researchers from various backgrounds: Sports technology, sustainable manufacturing, sustainable development, sustainable energy, supply chain management and textiles.
The team will look into Adidas' suppliers in Indonesia, and then create projects intended to put new sustainability strategies in place. In being chosen to work with Adidas, RMIT is on the receving end of a $207,000 research contract.
“RMIT secured this assignment based on their strengths in engineering, depth of understanding of sustainable manufacturing processes and their ongoing commitment to education in the region, which is exemplified by their Vietnam campuses," said William Anderson, head of Adidas Group's social and environmental affairs in Asia Pacific, in a statement.
The ultimate goal of the project is to set up a regional Sustainable Manuacturing Institute or standardized training for manufacturing suppliers in Indonesia, China and Vietnam.
Skechers have just launched their new "Break Up 2 Shape Up" campaign during the Superbowl in the US. Kim Kardashian has been appointed to endorse Skecher's Shape Up trainers.
They've also created a "break up" game on Facebook - anyone who wants to break up can send a message to Kim on Facebook and Kim will send you a personalized video to share with friends. There is also a sweepstakes game that complement this campaign - winner will get to have a 1 to 1 workout section with Kim and a friend of your choice.
Adidas have created an in-store digital experience to showcase their 8,000+ shoe range. It can be deployed to allow almost any retailer to sell the entire Adidas product range without having to be a flagship store in a major city, which is a huge win for all sorts of retailers big and small.
The experience is defined by a large footwear wall, made of multiple LCD touch screens that use facial recognition to detect a customers gender on approach to the wall. The adiVerse virtual footwear wall then customises the product experience for that gender, and helps guide them to the perfect shoe, or alternatively, let’s them browse the entire range of products, with each rendered in real-time 3D (hence the Intel partnership). The most popular products get the full content play, with videos, game stats, product specs and even twitter feeds fed through to the customer. Customers can even add product into their virtual cart, and check out via an iPad that sales staff would hold, paying with credit card or cash. While there are a few things left to be desired with the adiVerse Virtual Footwear Wall, its a great step in the right direction that helps blur the line between instore and online experiences.
