Not only that, but he also sent more than 4,000 posts, a volume that should not be too untrue to describe as "unprecedented."
When we look at the creative's work from another perspective, (compared to the essence of design) we will find that many times his role is like a bridge – to establish communication and interaction with the target group, to understand the "potential pain points" of customers.
Alessandro Lucioni Street
This "communication" is not a literal scene of verbal communication, but a comprehensive online and offline interaction ability in this era. In general, this person is very active in the social networking platforms that are popular with young people, and usually likes to chat and communicate, and is good at mingling with anyone.
I have never seen a celebrity designer or other public figure can publicly follow nearly 7,000 people on his social account, I believe that in Virgil's account, in addition to getting the first fresh information in the industry and the circle, he also has enough influence to push these new things out in an instant, and people are very keen to interact with this king of social media.
But just mentioned, Virgil's communication skills fit some of Nike's innovative ideas, what is this to say?
Nike is no longer just a "sneaker story"
A scene about the history of Jordan the Flying Man in the Nike Off Campus | Via blendsus
We all know that for many years, most of the cultural marketing of the sneaker market is still biased towards the Story Telling model, led by Nike, narrating a fascinating sneaker backstory, attracting ears and ears at the same time, but also injecting some spiritual meaning into the product, establishing a sneaker community with the goal of collecting, and then promoting sneaker culture.
But in the pre- and post-launch phases of THE TEN, Nike seemed to be blazing new trails through a wave of manipulation – bringing closer interactions between charismatic people and the sneaker community.
Doesn't that sound like something you've been doing all the time? From the golden age of Fujiwara Hiroshi and Chen Guanxi began...
The difference is that in the past, in the face of "sneaker culture", the role of most consumers was only an audience listening to the story. The coolness that people follow and identify with is almost always shaped and disseminated by some leading figures, and to this day, this practice is still relatively popular.
But with the popularity of social networks, when people are no longer just a listener, coupled with the openness of social networks, it also means that everyone has an outlet to express their attitudes.
Via ENG.
Looking at the direction of Nike's operation in the sneaker culture community in recent years, it is even more inclined to interact with the whole group to shorten the sense of distance. It is no longer simply to tell and pass on the story of sneakers, but to let more people find a sense of participation in the sneaker culture. Nike wanted to build deeper relationships and connect with a large consumer base. Many "operations" reflect Nike's similar direction of advancement, and are gradually encouraging people to express their attitudes through sneaker output, and Virgil and the above social characteristics make him the best person for Nike to contact with the entire young people.
Truly "blending together"
Nike Street
2017 seems like an important opportunity, but now that we look back, Nike's further interaction with the sneaker community also comes from this node, which is the stage when Virgil Abloh brought the THE TEN series.
In order to release the THE TEN series, when Nike held Nike Off Campus events in New York and London, the first official release of the THE TEN series, in addition to the official division of "Ghosting" and "Revealing" backstory, in fact, this series of shoes came with the concept of "encouraging expression and creativity".
Virgil | on-site at off campus in London Via SSENSE
The Nike Off Campus in London seems to be the beginning of a boom in many brand workshop activities in recent years. Virgil is like a "teaching teacher" in it, while sharing the creative experience of THE TEN, while encouraging everyone to play their own transformation ideas on the pure white Air Force 1, at the same time, Nike not only provided some sneaker transformation tools and materials on the spot, but also contributed to a creative collision, and the shoe friends present could share creative ideas and exchanges with each other.
Since then, with the celebration of the 35th anniversary of Air Force 1, the Nike AF-100 project launched at the end of the same year has also launched a series of Workshop activities in ComplexCon and Greater China, calling on sneaker enthusiasts to come and transform Air Force 1.
ComplexCon AF-100 Workshop event site | Via Nike
I have participated in the AF-100 program in Beijing, and perhaps the most profound thing that made me feel is the "sense of participation" mentioned above. This made it clearer that Nike and Virgil wanted to interact with the sneaker community at the time. Basically, after those events, brands large and small began to emulate this Workshop model and converged into a concentrated wave...
Encourage everyone to make their own sneakers | Via Off-White™
On the other hand, Virgil Abloh has also publicly mentioned the concept of "encouraging creation" behind THE TEN many times, and he has always been good at social network hashtag, and even launched the #readymadeoffwhite hashtag, which is also calling on people to DIY The Air Presto, which was about to be released at that time. There is also an interesting detail, the American popular singer John Mayer also privately sent Virgil a message, showing him a pair of tie-dye Presto new works he produced, which shows that Virgil's full influence has set off a hashtag on the social network, and also attracted some "users" who were unlikely to exist in this scene.
Also in the middle of 2017, in fact, Nike launched the "secret point" release game of SNKRS STASH at this node, and users can get the purchase opportunity of shoes by arriving at the designated location prompted in SNKRS STASH and completing the unlocking steps.
Regardless of the controversy between SNKRS and BOT at the technical level, the release of SNKRS STASH seems to be aimed at bringing a more diversified interactive mechanism to the traditional sales model, so that users can get more "participation" in the sale process of sneakers.
Some time ago, Off-White™ and Nike cooperated with Nike to launch The Nike Dunk Low x Off-White™ is also a case of this kind of "increased interaction" in the sales model. Prior to the launch, SNKRS also launched several rounds of voting activities and the concept of design background, through online interaction to achieve a more diversified interactive experience.
On the other hand, during the promotion of this series, Virgil's social accounts were also extremely active, sharing the origin and design concepts of these 50 pairs of Dunk colors through various ways, such as "how do you extend 1 color match", "the application of materials", "segmentation logic" and so on...
On the public domain website, there is also an "online course" on probability science about The 50 | Via public—domain.com
Nike and Off-White™ actually published a "public-domain.com" website for their collaboration, which almost stores nike and Off-White™ (Virgil)'s collaboration records, and even includes design documents, boilerplate drawings, etc., which is very much in line with the "theoretical aesthetic" that Virgil, a graduate of architecture, has always preferred as a design director (this was mentioned in our previous article). )。
From another point of view, this also provides a way to interact with people, after all, from the past to the present, the designer's design motivations, processes and methods are almost like trade secrets, and no designer is willing to actively disclose all his processes in the design of the project to everyone.
I think the reason why people are so keen to interact with Virgil Abloh is also partly because he's inherently open and communicative.
This is the embodiment of being able to "mingle" with the community in the true sense, and inject more interactive ways to make people improve their "sense of participation" in the promotion of sneaker culture. Let people react to the launch of a new shoe collection, no longer just buying or reselling. Whether it is daily online interaction, a different experience in the sales process, or the concept of feeling the designer from offline interaction, you can bring more participation experiences to yourself.
Nike's innovations aren't just about the way we design our products. It's more of a mindset, creating a new generation and future-oriented form that enables a more inclusive and vibrant community.
"I don't want you to feel, I want me to feel." It seems to be an entertaining network meme, but in fact, it also reflects some of the characteristics of young people under social networks: for the evaluation of things, people obviously no longer "fully accept" the opinions of leaders, everyone will produce their own opinions, and what people really need may be more focused on communication and communication.
The relationship between brands and consumers is gradually changing with the iteration of the "social network model", and reaching a real form of interaction with the corresponding target group is the most effective way to improve goodwill and close the distance.
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