Under Armour Genesis Curry Flow

As we approached the end of 2021, Stephen Curry, of the Golden State Warriors, was closing in on the historic achievement of breaking the world record for 3-point scoring. As one of the greatest accomplishments in basketball history, we were tasked by our client, Under Armour, to think of a suitable way to celebrate this moment and to drive the cultural relevance of the brand, which had languished in recent years. Our insight was that the kids who love Stephen Curry and applaud his every move on the court spend the rest of their recreational time making their own moves in the burgeoning world of metaverse gaming, their own way of ‘owning the court.’ So our ideas: let's use the moment that Steph ‘Changes the game for good,’ to change the ‘metaverse for good’ by launching the first cross platform metaverse wearable, the Curry 9 Genesis Flow. And to reflect Curry’s focus on doing ‘good,’ let's raise funds to support his charity contributions in the process.

Despite all the talk about the ‘metaverse,’ each gaming platform is discreet from each other, with no interoperability or way to cross from one platform to the other. In a sense there was no ‘metaverse’.

So how did we create the first sneaker that players could wear in the very distinct platforms of SandBox, Decentraland, Gala Games and Rumble Kong League? We created a ‘Genesis sneaker NFT’ in 5 distinct styles and rarity that came with a sneaker locker where the same sneaker was re-designed in the style and coded language of the individual platforms. One sneaker executed in 4 distinct game languages resulting in the first metaverse sneaker ever.

Of course it’s one thing to have an idea like this, it’s another to drive a frenzy of desire with no media dollars, no influencer activation and even no social posting from Stephen Curry himself. So, we created highly engaging teaser creative and activated the gaming platforms and their millions of followers on social media to start the frenzy. By the time of the drop, over 25 million people had visited our drop site and on the day 4.5 million tried to buy the digital sneaker resulting in a total sold out in minutes. All proceeds from the initial sale went to UA’s charities resulting in $1mm target achieved in minutes. Secondary sales of course followed and continue to rise, at time of writing @$7mm resulting in greater funds for the charities, paying for the cost of the entire marketing campaign more than twice over and setting a new standard for how to generate a true metaverse product.