Case study: adidas in the AR Neighbourhood
By Simon Fuller. Shoe world. It’s time for augmented reality, adidas style. The sports brand has gone and partnered with AR specialists Metaio to create an entire virtual world, adidas Originals 3D Neighbourhood, activated by footwear.
All consumers have to do to enter the world is go out and buy one of a range of five Originals trainers – including the likes of the Forum and the Samba – and they’ll also get their hands on an AR code tucked away on the shoe’s tongue. Then they need to shove it in front of a web camera to fire up the Neighbourhood.
So what’s in this new Hood?
Well, games and experiences, such as an interactive Star Wars game – tied into adidas’ recent collaborations with the Lucas franchise – in which players face off against those evil Stormtroopers hiding behind the AR-created buildings of the Neighbourhood.
“With the shoe you can stroll through the virtual world of the Neighbourhood and play games,” explains Metaio marketer Jan Schlink. “You use the product as an interaction device, in order to shoot at troopers or avoid getting shot.”
Along with Star Wars, adidas will be bringing two more titles to shoe-wearers in the form a skating game where players need to manipulate their footwear to perform board-based tricks, and a music-oriented game which will involve a spot of shoe-based DJing.
“What you see [with the adidas Neighbourhood] is the linking [of] physical products with virtual worlds,” says Schlink, who adds that this tech may just be the start of something bigger. “This has a great potential. I mean, it depends on the product and content, but there is a lot in our imagination. And it’s not only the fancy things. What about technical data sheets or construction help directly on or around the product?
“[We could also have] games with real elements combined with virtual elements, for example, card games, books, toys, packaging.”
