adidas | James Harden Vol. 9 Launch

Featured on Netflix's Starting 5, the adidas Harden Vol. 9 launch was one of those nights that took on a life of its own. We built something worth including in a documentary before we knew it would be.

James Harden was launching his ninth signature shoe with adidas in Los Angeles. The brief was a store activation. We made it a world.

I led the full creative direction across the entire store and back parking lot, designing a multi-zone experience for an invite only crowd of athletes, influencers, and media. Every zone had a reason to exist. Floating Vol. 9 displays throughout the store. A robot arm photo moment. A DJ. Shoe decor that turned the whole space into a gallery.

In the parking lot we built a food booth for Marathon Burger, a nod to Harden's close friendship with Nipsey Hussle, who started the Marathon brand before he passed. It wasn't a brand partnership. It was a tribute. The kind of detail that people in that room understood without explanation.

The centerpiece was a custom light box timeline we built displaying all nine Harden volumes side by side, each paired with photos of him wearing them on the court and off.