New Balance Turned a Free Gift That Attracted Sneakerheads
Client: New Balance Singapore
What we made: Plush Toy
Campaign: Gift-with-Purchase
Industry: Sportswear and Footwear
Event: Product Launch
The Campaign
The 574 buyer and Made in USA aren’t the same person. One’s picking up an everyday snaker. The other’s paying a premium for a shoe that trades on being made properly, in small batches. A generic ‘free gift with purchase’ line doesn’t work the same for both- the gift had to match who was actually buying.
Source: New Balance Facebook
What We Made : A Pin for Collectors and plush toy for everyone else.
For the Made line, we built a set of six hard enamel pins, only available with a regular priced MADE footwear purchase, only reedeemable in-store across five outlets. Pin collecting is already its own culture in the sneaker and streetwear world- people already pin things in jackets, caps and backpacks. We aren’t introducing a new habit, just giving that habit something worth adding to the rotation.
For 574, we went complete different direction: the plush version of the actual shoe with googly eyes stuck on and its own laces tied up like little arms. It’s not merch shaped like the shoe. It’s the shoe, cosplaying as a toy. That disctinction mattered- it’s the kind of gift someone photograpghs and posts before they’ve even taken the real pair out of the box.
Custom enamel pin for New Balance Singapore.
The packaging did its own bit of work here too. Instead of a plain box, the plush sat inside a little window display shaped like a storefront- an awning graphic across the top, a red “574” tag on the front like a shop sign, wiht the plush itself visible through a clean window rather than hidden inside. It turned the box into something photograpghing on its own but more than that, it cracked the way sneakerheads generally showcase their sneaker collections in boxes. This plush toy fit right into their genre.
Source: New Balance Instagram
Why We think it works
The pins worked because they slotted into something MADE buyers were probably already doing. The plush worked because it gave the 574 — a shoe most people already own a version of — a reason to feel new again. Neither gift competed with the shoe for attention. Both extended it. Sneakerheads generally display their collection from their box with the little window, which is what inspired to do the packaging for this plushie the same. To display their shoes along with this plushie.