Small-town sneakerheads will take center stage in Hibbett Sports’ latest digital campaign.
Created in partnership with Nike and sneaker enthusiast site NiceKicks, the Birmingham, Ala.-based footwear and athleisure chain’s Small-Town Sneakerhead campaign “highlights the unique world of sneakers and specifically small-town aficionados and collectors who give their own unique spin to sneaker culture in non-metropolitan areas of the country,” the retailer said.
Each bite-size episode will showcase a different sneakerhead’s story, including how they got started collecting, what they have in their stash and what excites them about the future of sneakers.
“Hibbett is a top destination for sneakerheads to pick up the hottest releases in small towns across America,” Sarah Sharp-Wangaard, vice president of marketing, Hibbett Sports, said in a statement. “We are excited about partnering with NiceKicks and Nike to bring this campaign to life and further engage with the sneaker community, as it means so much to our respective brands.”
The second video premiered Thursday and focused on Cheyenne, Wyo., native Brett Drake, who Hibbett says unofficially started collecting at age 12. A project manager in the mining industry, Drake says he has grown his sneaker collection to around 250 pairs.
The debut episode, released Nov. 30, introduced Tiona Deniece from East Buffalo, N.Y. Now a singer-songwriter, she said she first got into sneakers at 13. When her parents stopped buying sneakers for her, she got a job at a footwear retailer and continued building out her collection from there, shopping overseas and camping out overnight to nab a desired pair. Now a busy musician, she said she mostly shops online because of the ease and convenience.
“This partnership is a first of its kind and a celebration of not just sneakerheads, but sneakerheads who live where you might not expect,” John Bapst, a sales director at Nike, said in a statement.
Hibbett’s retail footprint includes more than 1,000 Hibbett Sports and City Gear specialty stores across 35 states. In the third quarter, the company saw net sales increase 20.3 percent year over year to $331.4 million. Comparable sales grew 21.2 percent, while brick-and-mortar comparable sales expanded 17.5 percent.