HONY x CLARKS
Challenge
Clarks Originals has a long history of collaborating with different brands and creating products that defy expectations, generate hype, and stand out from their standard catalog.
Brief
Starting from the iconic Wallabee silhouette, design a shoe and packaging concept for a completely unexpected partnership.
Insight
Suede shoes tend to be easily scuffed and show early wear patterns, but sneaker culture emphasizes keeping shoes pristine. Like scuff marks, wrinkles and scars represent a person’s experiences that form them, relating the stories behind their faces.
Strategy
Humans of New York (HNY) is a brand known for storytelling that celebrates people as they are, scars and all. Leaning into the concept of flaws revealing beauty, collaborating with HNY defies the conventions of collectible shoes, while creating a unique, new story for both brands.
Execution
Six people featured by HNY are chosen to be part of the “Wallabee Mile” series. Each “Miler” is given a pair of Wallabees and teamed with an in-house designer, who is intimately familiar with the Wallabee’s brand. Milers are joined by their designers as they “walk a mile” in the shoes, demonstrating important parts of their stories. Designers take the worn Wallabees as inspiration, combining the “flaws” with the story, to create beautiful designs.
Each customer receives a plain white box adorned with a simple line drawing representing the “mile” walked. Inside, the box and the shoes share similar styling to contrast the exterior. Along with the shoes, each box includes a card detailing the story of the human inspiration behind the footwear. Both Clarks Originals and Humans of New York document each Miler across social media platforms, showcasing their backstory, footage of their journey, and behind-the-scenes pictures of the shoes being designed.
