adidas “The Pack” seeding kit

”The Pack” is a new apparel and footwear collection from adidas, created to blur the distinction between what we wear at home, in the street, and on the field of play. To design their influencer packaging, they turned to Hovers Over Water, a Portland-based concept, brand design, and graphics studio @hovers_over_water. And to engineer their vision, Hovers Over Water turned to Premier. The result is a dynamic unboxing experience that got the attention of a lot of eyeballs – not only from athletes in the MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL, but also from two respected packaging design websites.

ADI_PACK_BOX_IRRIDECENT

Supra_Studio4021

BOX-OPENING_SML

Supra_Studio3968

Supra_Studio3998A

Supra_Studio4026

Supra_Studio4091_SQUARE

With The Pack from adidas, “There are no boundaries at the intersection of sport and culture; the lines are constantly shifting.”

In a flash of inspiration, Hovers Over Water saw this idea as a visual event, a graphic narrative: the packaging itself would shift, blur, and transform as the recipient opened it.

A great concept is one thing. How to make it work is another. They came to Premier for our engineering expertise and our experience with lenticular printing, and we went to work. Using blank prototypes, we figured out how to lay out the artwork on the different layers, laser-cut lines out of the material, and print black areas on a clear substrate for the sleeve. We then tested the fit and functionality, making sure that when the box was pulled out, it would interact with the clear areas on the sleeve, creating an animated flickering effect.

Once that was perfected, we created the die lines and a template to place the artwork. Then we elevated the idea even further, using iridescent foil and a black matte premium finish to print the graphics, so that the colors and dimensionality would change as they reflected light from different angles.

The effect was so nice, we used it twice – inside the box is an information card with a slide-out sleeve that echoes the animation of the outside package.

Another engineering challenge was to size the box correctly to accommodate two hoodies, a long-sleeved shirt, and a pair of UltraBoost sneakers to fit the influencer with the largest shoe size. And finally, we came up with a way to ensure that the contents would arrive in good shape. We nested the seeding kit within a larger cardboard box with foam inside to keep it in position and safe from the edges of the exterior box, and wrapped it all in a poly bag.

Christopher DeGaetano, Creative Director at Hovers Over Water says, “Only Premier would have been able to see this ambitious project through to the end. And their idea for the outside protective packaging was a huge added benefit.” 

We thank adidas and Hovers Over Water for including us in this project and are proud to announce that it is featured on the “Packaging of the World” and the “Dieline”  websites, both prestigious platforms celebrating the packaging design community.