The Air Jordan 1 ‘Chicago’ returned in 2022, albeit in a new “Lost & Found” guise, featuring a nostalgic, aged look. Since the original and the silhouette are a key part of sneaker history, it was only right we paid homage to the legacy of this incredible sneaker with a campaign unlike any other conducted in India.
The AJ1 'Chicago' was inspired by the high-top Air Jordan 1 original colourway, first released in 1985. The shoe harkens back to a time when shoe boxes were often lost in inventory stockrooms, only to be found again years later. Before the advent of sophisticated inventory systems, products were typically tracked with pen and paper. Human error was inevitable and frequently resulted in shoe boxes with mismatched lids. The AJ1 Chicago is a throwback to this era, drawing inspiration from what an original 1985 Air Jordan 1 would look like if found decades later in a dusty stock room in a mom & pop sports store.
According to the Jordan design team, the goal of this shoe was to create a "time-travel moment", especially for a new generation of consumers. The process of buying a shoe today is very different from what it was like in the 80s. This sneaker attempts to capture that lost-and-found feeling, giving consumers a taste of what a box-fresh, vintage AJ1 would have looked like back in the day.
Paying homage to this incredible story, we created a unique campaign, never seen before in the Indian context. We kicked it all off with a Community Canvas with Vishwas Shah leading the charge. Here, as the name implies, the community came together to paint a canvas that was themed around the lost & found story.
Then, for our raffle, we teamed up with 4 legacy sports stores in India; namely Wagle Sports, Lodhi Sports, Rakhra Sports and Ramdev Sports. We conducted a 3-day long raffle ticket treasure hunt, where people had to find these 4 stores in their respective cities using clues that we put out on Instagram and collect their tickets from these stores. After collecting their tickets, participants were required to submit them at our Superkicks outlets so as to confirm their entries.
We also had a one-of-a-kind Lost & Found Museum in The Basement of our New Delhi store. Here we featured a display of nostalgic memorabilia items, such as - toys from the 90s, a collection of some of the best Nike sneakers from the last two decades, vintage posters and classic electronics.
To round off the campaign and raffle, we announced the winners via a live raffle system conducted at the same time at each of our 4 stores. Here, not only did team Superkicks announce winners but for a bit of fun, we also offered people from the community random chances to pick out winning tickets from the raffle boxes.
Not only was this one of our biggest campaigns, it was also undoubtedly the most memorable. This is attributed to the combination of all factors; launching the iconic Air Jordan 1 Chicago in its “Lost & Found” guise, the Community Canvas, teaming up with India’s longest standing sports stores and of course, engaging our community with a campaign that was thoroughly loved and enjoyed.