Adidas has by no means been a stranger to tradition, however with Nuestra Cultura al Mundo – its newest inventive initiative celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month – the model has gone past the anticipated.
The multi-year venture honours the tales of athletes and artists shaping their communities, with a spotlight this yr on two trailblazing skate boarders – Jen Soto and Diego Nájera – whose expertise and id redefine what it means to maneuver between worlds. Helmed by administrators Gabi Lamb and Andres Norwood, the marketing campaign unfolds as a visible love letter to heritage, motion, and reference to a inventive language that feels each cinematic and deeply human.
“For me, the place to begin was id; one thing you reside on daily basis,” says Andres. “Gabi and I needed to floor the inventive course in the actual, lived textures of our cultures, asking ourselves: what does ‘Nuestra Cultura al Mundo’ truly feel and appear like when it is stripped of cliché?”
The reply, it seems, lies in on a regular basis moments. Via pure gentle, movie images, and storytelling rooted in neighborhood, the administrators create a visible world the place heritage is lived somewhat than carried out. Jen and Diego seem not as model ambassadors however as individuals—skating, cooking, laughing, surrounded by household and mates.
Gabi Lamb
Gabi, a Mexican American director identified for her emotional, analogue aesthetic, drew inspiration from the uncooked power of traditional skate movies. She explains: “I revisited Baker 3, Supreme’s Cherry and Blessed, and Woman’s Yeah Proper! – these iconic items that formed skate tradition.
From there, we frolicked speaking with Jenn and Diego about their upbringings, their connection to skating, and the way their heritage formed who they’re. That turned the emotional core of the marketing campaign.”
Her course captures that intimacy with tenderness. In a single scene, Jen skates the legendary Brooklyn Banks as her voiceover asserts her independence: “not being put in a field.” Later, she’s seen cooking for her household in Pennsylvania, her nieces and nephews working round beneath a fluttering Puerto Rican flag. “It felt intimate and real,” says Gabi. “Like being a fly on the wall in a second of household heat.”
For Diego, the shoot centred on themes of brotherhood and neighborhood. “He spoke about how his brothers and mates have all the time been his basis,” Gabi continues. “We subtly bridged soccer and skateboarding – displaying how each formed his self-discipline and drive. Bringing his brother Ruben into the shoot added a wonderful emotional layer.”
On the coronary heart of all of it is adidas’s position as each collaborator and catalyst. “Adidas has all the time lived at that intersection the place tradition, sport, and self-expression meet,” says Andres. “We approached the marketing campaign like constructing an ecosystem – the game is there, however so are the elders, the murals, the children skating after faculty. Adidas turns into the thread that ties all of it collectively, not the primary character.”
The balancing act between model and neighborhood is what makes Nuestra Cultura al Mundo stand other than typical heritage advertising and marketing. As an alternative of amplifying shiny perfection, it slows all the way down to savour authenticity and honesty.
Andres provides: “We took the chance of slowing down and discovering magnificence within the mundane, utilizing pure gentle, actual environments, actual individuals, from Jen cooking for her household to Diego hitting the mercado along with his brother.
“We handled tradition as artwork. Each body is a love letter to who we’re, and who we’re nonetheless turning into.”
The marketing campaign culminated in an experiential celebration in Puerto Rico on the finish of October, which was a becoming finale for a venture that celebrates residence and belonging. “Puerto Rico is each a location and a personality,” says Andres. “It holds the enjoyment, the ache, the rhythm, and the resistance that outline a lot of our shared expertise. Bringing the marketing campaign there felt religious – the power was electrical.”
Whereas Hispanic Heritage Month has wrapped, Nuestra Cultura al Mundo is way from over. Extra storytelling moments and community-led activations are deliberate within the months forward, persevering with to develop the marketing campaign’s impression past a single calendar second.
For each administrators, this work marks a shift in how world manufacturers have interaction with tradition, with authenticity, nuance, and emotion main the way in which. “For manufacturers to really join, they should honour the communities driving tradition,” says Gabi. “A lot creativity comes from marginalised communities – that battle, resilience, and fervour are the place tradition is born. When individuals really feel seen, they need to assist manufacturers that see them.”
Andres agrees, seeing heritage-driven campaigns as a window into the longer term. “Creativity is the bridge between the private and the common,” he says. “When manufacturers give area for artists to guide with authenticity, it modifications how individuals see themselves on the earth. That is the true heartbeat of Nuestra Cultura al Mundo – and of the place storytelling is headed subsequent.”
