Who: West NYC
What: Viral Instagram reel
Why: To promote new Adidas collab
Results: 1.4 million views
Manhattan sneaker boutique West NYC hit it out of the park with a recent social media campaign to hype its Adidas Indoor Gazelle Wizard collab.
The popular post featured a costumed character in a purple robe and a cartoon character head racing down a New York City subway platform, ducking in and out of a waiting train while pursued by a guy yelling, “Give me my shoes!”
“The wizard always has something up his sleeve,” read the caption. “He must have missed Platform 9 3/4…and if you missed him yesterday, don’t worry…” It went on to give details about the drop.
“The reel hit 1.4 million views, our most yet,” says Adir Landes, brand manager for the retailer, a sister shop to Tip Top Shoes. “There was a Jordan 11 launch that same weekend which had a very high budget reel that only yielded around 750,000 plays.”
In Landes’ opinion, “a lot of projects tailored toward sneakerheads have become far too serious. As someone who loves watching sitcoms and cartoons, I can relate to a sneaker launch that has some goofy promo attached to it,” he says.
To create this reel and several related ones “in the vein of Scooby Doo,” the store worked with local comedians to create a wizard mascot wreaking havoc everywhere he went.
“I like to do at least one reel with comedians when working on a sneaker launch,” says Landes. “Comedians get a lot of engagement on social media—far more than most other categories of influencers. And they speak to a much broader audience than sneaker influencers.” This strategy helps West NYC spread the word about upcoming sneaker releases far beyond their core clientele.
“The reel performed well because it matched the energy of a lot of people’s ‘For You’ page on Instagram,” he says. “A wizard running through the NYC subway system? Now that’s about as high energy as it gets!”
View the reel here.
