Magnet 91
This week we’re travelling to China, visiting a shoe store and discussing the first ever city wide decorations for Ramadan in London.
Today is also International Trans Day of Visibility, and you can read more about it & it’s importance here.
Enjoy.
Clarks announces latest collaboration with ‘trailblazers’
Clarks has announced the latest iteration of its ‘The World Ahead’ campaign, which sees the footwear brand collaborate with industry “ambassadors and activists” to “champion more people pushing for progress”.
The campaign marks the launch of a new Clarks shoe, the ‘Tornhill’, based on a “retro” silhouette from the brand, reimagined for the campaign.
The latest instalment of the platform features Jourdan Dunn, a model and actor, Sonny Hall, a poet, artist and model, and Marcelino Sambé, a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet.
“Last season we launched our new brand campaign with some fantastic ambassadors all creating their own positive social progress,” says Tara McRae, Clarks’ global chief marketing and digital officer. “This season we are so excited to be adding to our Clarks collective with Jourdan, Sonny and Marcelino, who all represent something really unique and important.”
Ramadan Lights
The Islamic festival of fasting and prayer lasts from the 22nd March until the evening of Friday April 21. In London this year, for the first time, Ramadan is to be celebrated with a light display in central London, in Piccadilly Circus.
‘Ramadan Lights’ is the first street illumination to celebrate the holy month in the UK and Europe. It's blazing away on Coventry Street (between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, where the Trocadero is, and the installation, created in collaboration with the Heart of London Business Alliance, sees 30,000 lights forming 61 moons. To be more sustainable, the lights are more energy-efficient LED bulbs, while the carbon from the piece will be offset.
Nike Airmax
March 26 is the anniversary of Nike’s Air Max 1 sneaker that made its debut in 1987 and nearly four decades later, the line is still extremely popular. To the delight of fans, the brand opens the Air Max vault each March to release classic shoes as well as new designs.
In the city of Hangzhou in China, a huge double-screen 3D billboard stunned locals earlier this week. The out-of-home activation features various lightning bolts, metallic structures and even a scorpion that appears to jump out and wrap around both screens. But of course, at the centre of the billboard are the sneakers.
This year, customers could purchase the Air Max 1 ’86 ‘Big Bubble’ which is one of the original styles. To coincide with the billboard, there was also a pop-up installation over the weekend at one of the Nike stores in Shanghai that leaned into the ‘bubble’ theme.