Adidas Top Ten x espn
The adidas Top Ten shoe debuted in 1979. ESPN SportsCenter's Top Ten segment debuted in 1979. Clearly, 1979 deserves some love ... and a commemorative shoe. adidas and ESPN teamed up to create a sneaker that celebrates one of the greatest years in sports and asked us to get the word out. We embraced the retro vibes of the collab in everything from product videos to influencer activations. Check them out below or read a top-level summary of the work on Muse by Clio.
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Sending Jacques Slade back in time
Jacques Slade is the king of shoe unboxing. To make the adidas Top Ten Hi ESPN 1979 stand out on his channel, we sent it to him in an old-school tube TV and let him know the shoes have one major flaw: they can occasionally cause time travel.
We also had Jacques record :30 and :15 videos for us to deploy on adidas' organic social channels and as YouTube pre-rolls.
The User guide
We made a handful of TV product kits just like Jacques' for adidas influencers. Each one included an adidas Top Ten Hi ESPN 1979 User Guide. This tongue-in-cheek pamphlet covers the history of the shoe, its top 10 features and a few not-so-frequently-asked questions.




(Squinting? Click to expand.)
Product video: the Top Ten of The top ten
How would the original ESPN SportsCenter crew sell a shoe like this? That's the question we tried to answer with this throwback Top Ten video.
AWARDS:
Clio Sports — Bronze
One Show — Finalist
New York Festival's Advertising Awards — Finalist
CREDITS:
Simon Candy, Executive Creative Director
Katie Gywnn-Sackson, Graphic Designer
Chris Buda, Executive Producer
Patrick McPherson, Copywriter