Deichmann Hits the Streets with Sneaker Showcase Campaign

Adriaan Louw has directed an energetic new campaign film for German footwear retailer, Deichmann 

In line with their new sneaker campaign ‘The UNIQUE & UNITED’ the film showcases Nike, ADIDAS, Puma, Fila, Asics, Reebok, and Kappa together, celebrating the strength of the individual in the community. Deichmann stages its branded sneakers in authentic street style, and relies on real talent. UNIQUE & UNITED focuses on the collective and conveys the idea that uniqueness in a group is not only possible but stronger. The appearance shows how versatile sneakers can be worn without rules and conventions.

Director Adriaan Louw said of the campaign: “Shooting this in Cape Town, South Africa, was great as it is where I was born and raised. I was lucky enough to work with friends and people I’ve worked with in the past on skateboard trips and fashion editorial films. A city like cape town can be quite small, and the summer season can be filled with productions. We had to get creative with some of the scenes by finding places/streets already booked, as well as approaching parts of the city that has been used a lot in media in creative ways. We kept a good balance between shooting in traditional ways, but also sometimes I was bombing down a hill on my skateboard, camera in-hand. We try to keep things flexible to be able to adapt to whatever comes, like we had heavy rainfall partway through the day, so we had to split into two units. I ended up approving shots via video call, which was a little taste of ‘Zoom directing’ before the pandemic hit. Haha.”

“The creatives wanted to use a beatboxer in the film, so I created a concept around this by having her be the creator of the music that brings everyone together from different places and scenes, fitting the Unique and United campaign theme." 

"Having only recently started working more in commercial filmmaking, I was looking forward to working with bigger groups of cast. We ended up having a lot of shoes to cover, and our flexibility as a team came together to pull it off. Also, every time I shoot I’m finding better techniques to achieve shooting 16x9 and 9x16 on set. This is something we all need to become used to in the modern world of advertising", Andrew concluded.

The campaign film was shot in January this year, and released online at the end August.