Making Of: ASICS EX89

February 22, 2024

Concept:

Director Dylan Knight crafted a beautiful spot for the launch of the classic ASICS EX89. It is a re-release of the first basketball shoe from ASICS, and was incredibly well received across the board. The nostalgia for the shoe allowed Dylan to have a bit of fun bringing that theme forward on set.

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The idea from WheelHouse Labs was super clever. They wanted to tell a story that portrayed many people ‘playing their game’ — masters of their craft. We collectively decided to create multiple different ‘arenas’ in order to accomplish the task. The different careers for our talent were - record store owner, creative director, chef, and botanist.

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We were able to secure one of our favorite shooting locations to date, which we’ll elaborate on later. Please enjoy the Directors Cut below and some more information to follow on how the whole project came together.

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Tone & Feel

Nostalgia, nostalgia, nostalgia. We wanted to feel the throwback basketball vibe throughout. That’s why Dylan chose to shoot a portion of this spot is shot on super 35 Kodak Film.

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We also wanted these arenas to feel minimalist, but well thought out. We brought on Brielle Hubert for production design. She’s truly one of the most talented individuals we’ve had the pleasure of working with. From pre-viz designs to reality, we were really blown away by the execution and creativity applied to get this job done.

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DP Ben Goodman added this amazing flair with these vintage flash bulbs meant to emulate the walk down the NBA ‘runway’. There’s so much showmanship to the arrival into the arena, and we wanted to re-create that energy as the talent walked towards their respective areas.

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Production

Production was quite the adventure on this shoot, as there were many moving parts and lots to capture in just one day’s time. Art department was scheduled meticulously to give them time to hop from one set to the next in order to continue the individual builds.

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It was one of those shoots that benefited from a ton of pre-production, especially because Dylan’s vision was so specific. We filmed on location at House of the Book, which was really the perfect backdrop for this creative.

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It’s an empty temple that is actually where they used to film power rangers (fun fact!) It offers such versatility, and is quite an architectural wonder. It was the perfect canvas for this one.

Edit / Post-Production

The editing on this one was handled by our director Dylan Knight. He really put an amazing touch on this, utilizing some really special techniques to cut in some still photography and vintage imagery throughout.

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The entire process was done remotely with color by Company 3.