adidas AR Experience Draws Attention to Oceans

Athleticwear company adidas probably isn’t the first name that comes to mind when you think of AR experiences. However, the company has been using XR both internally and externally for a while now – and to great effect.

adidas first came to our attention in March of last year when they used an AR shoe unboxing to launch an anticipated product. In February of this year, they started using XR workflow programs within the company.

Their new AR experience may have a much broader audience.

“For the Oceans” AR Experience

For the Oceans is an AR experience launched in the adidas flagship store in Paris earlier today.

The experience uses TV screens inside the store as triggers. When a user views the television screen through the mobile app, they enter an ocean world filled with plastic. They can then tap the plastic pieces to collect them. Users can then watch the process that adidas uses to recycle ocean plastic into usable materials for their products.

The AR experience draws attention both to ocean pollution and to the work that adidas is doing to increase environmental sustainability in the clothing world.

Producers often make athletic clothing with synthetic materials, which are harmful to the environment from the point of production until well after they are discarded. adidas is working to incorporate more recycled plastics into their product line. This decreases pollution from creating plastics in the first place. It also takes pollution already in the world and puts it to good use.

The AR experience will be available as a standalone app. Users of the app for Apple and Android devices received a special invitation.

For the Oceans is in the Paris store for the next six weeks.

Building the Experience

adidas Platform A, eyecandylab, and MONOCHROME joined forces to create For the Oceans AR experience.

Platform A is a Paris-based accelerator program launched by adidas to increase its digital initiatives. Through the program, adidas works with tech startups to launch innovative programs like For the Oceans.

“It is important to us to make the innovations of our brand a tangible experience for our customers. Therefore, we always try to find interesting options on how to present our brand in a way that is relevant to our customers,” adidas Innovation and Trends senior manager, Florian Fiedler, said in a release shared with ARPost. “This is proven once again through the cooperation with eyecandylab and the resulting use of Augmented Reality.”

eyecandylab is a startup in kind of the sense that Magic Leap is a startup. Instead of imagining tee-shirt clad coders in a rundown studio, imagine a team of industrious, energetic professionals appearing at event such as AWE, and CES. They’ve worked with adidas, after all.

“Through our cooperation with adidas, we again demonstrate how Augmented Reality is disrupting a wide range of areas and how our technology plays a key role. Augmented Reality is very effective as a medium for storytelling because it completely integrates the user,” eyecandylab CEO, Robin Sho Moser, said in the release. “Our product not only serves to position adidas as an innovator, but also highlights the company’s environmental and sustainability initiatives.”

Honestly, we don’t know much about MONOCHROME. They’re on our radar now, however.

There was a time when I would have been just as surprised to be writing a tech article about adidas as some may be to read one. However, the company is setting themselves up as a driver in the industry, in addition to their other exciting initiatives.