JD Sports Gave Sneakerheads A Reason To Buy Air Max from Them
Client: JD Sports
What we made: Shoe Charms
Campaign: Gift-with-purchase
Industry: Sportswear and Footwear
Event: Product Launch
The Campaign
Air max Day comes around every year, and the release calendar isn’t something any retailer controls- Nike sets it; every store carries the same shoe. JD Sports didn’t need hype for the sneaker. That was already guaranteed. They needed people deciding between JD, another retailer, or Nike’s own site to walk into a JD store specifically.
Our work was with JD Sports as the retailer, not with Nike directly. The Air Max branding on the product itself belongs to Nike-what we built sat on top of that, as JD’s own layer on release week.
Source: JD Sports Malaysia Instagram
What We Made : Shoe Charms that gave JD Sports an extra charm as a retailer.
They build it as a gift-with-purchase: buy any pair of Nike Air Max footwear, get a set of limited-edition Air Max lace charms. Buy the flagship Air Max Pulse specifically, and the charm set changes- a second, different design that only comes with that shoe. Lace charms like this are almost always cast in a hard enamel or PVC finish for exactly that reason — both hold color well and can take the daily friction of being threaded through laces without cracking or fading, unlike a printed or painted surface that would wear off within weeks.
No spend threshold, no separate step. The product someone was already buying became the qualifier, which meant the reward showed up at the register without anyone having to think about hitting a minimum.
They also opted for a holographic packaging option for a premium option and is also very trendy with the younger generation, along with a small packaging header with the logo and the charm shapes printed on the header card for even more branding space.
Custom shoe dubrae with holographic packaging for JD Sports retailing Nike Air shoes.
Along with the packaging, we added a packaging tag with the logo and the shoe charm size and shapes for an extra branding.
We kept the charms wearable rather than purely decorative- designed to stay with the shoe after purchase, not end up as a giveaway. And the campaign ran under JD’s own “Maxed Out” identity rather than borrowing NIke’s language wholesale, so JD had a creative footprint of its own during a week when every other retailer was running the identical release.
The Pulse-exclusive charm was kept scarce- the flagship stores in Singapore, sex across Malaysia. That scarcity did real work- sneakerheads had to check which specific store carried it before buying, which is a much stickier reason to visit than a generic ‘available while stocks last’.
Why we think it works
Nobody had to be convinced to buy an Air Max during Air Max Day. What was in question was where. Tying the charm set to the specific product, not a spend threshold, meant JD didn't have to compete on price or upsell anyone. They just had to be the store that gave people something to walk out with beyond the shoebox.
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