Case Study — Sportswear

Adidas Originals
Duality

Two tracksuits, one identity. Intimate portraiture on Kodak Portra — without a single roll of film. 15 assets in 4 days.

Final Assets

4 days

Concept to Delivery

Set Build & Casting

85%

Cost Reduction vs Traditional

The brief

Split Image — Black Beckenbauer & White Beckenbauer

Adidas Originals was reissuing the Beckenbauer tracksuit in a limited Wales Bonner collaboration — two colorways, black and white, each with the signature maroon three-stripes. The campaign needed to feel like Wales Bonner’s world: diasporic identity, quiet confidence, the intimacy of a portrait that reveals more than a lookbook ever could.

Not a product shoot. A study of a person wearing the clothes the way they would actually wear them — close up, unguarded, real. The kind of image where you remember the face before you remember the brand.

Client: Adidas Originals

Product: Beckenbauer Track Top — Wales Bonner Collaboration

Scope: Hero video 30s, 10 editorial portraits, 4 product reels

Role: AI Creative Director (Solo)

What I did: Creative concept, casting direction, AI generation, analog film treatment, color grading, sound design, final assembly

Client

Adidas Originals

Product

Beckenbauer Track Top — Wales Bonner Collaboration

Scope

Hero video 30s, 10 editorial portraits, 4 product reels

Role

AI Creative Director (Solo)

What I did

✓Creative concept
✓casting direction
✓AI generation
✓analog film treatment
✓color grading
✓sound design
✓final assembly

Why traditional production didn’t fit

Full-Width Mood Shot — Intimate Portrait

Wales Bonner collaborations demand a specific visual language: raw, analog, intimate. The kind of portrait photography that looks effortless but requires exceptional casting, a photographer who understands diaspora aesthetics, and a subject comfortable enough to be truly unguarded on camera. That combination is rare, expensive, and slow.

💰

$20,000–40,000

A portrait campaign at Wales Bonner quality: photographer fee, casting agency, model day rates, controlled-set rental, film stock and processing, retouching. Every detail costs.

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Casting bottleneck

Finding the right face isn’t about beauty — it’s about presence. The model must embody diasporic identity authentically. Casting agencies take weeks. The wrong face kills the campaign.

📌

Analog unpredictability

The Wales Bonner aesthetic demands real film grain, not digital filters. But shooting on actual film means limited takes, processing delays, and no guarantee the “magic frame” is on the roll.

📌

The vulnerability gap

The best portraits capture unguarded emotion. But professional models in a controlled set with lights, crew, and a ticking clock rarely reach genuine vulnerability. The more you stage intimacy, the less intimate it feels.

What AI made possible

Identity

A face that carries the story

Created a custom virtual subject with the specific presence Wales Bonner campaigns demand: young, Black, with locs that catch light and move naturally. Not a generic model face — a person with texture, asymmetry, pores, and the kind of quiet intensity that holds a close-up. Consistent identity across both colorways, every angle, every frame.

Duality

Two selves, one garment

The black tracksuit shoots were directed for stillness: a direct gaze, composed jaw, the formality of the zip pulled to the neck. The white tracksuit shoots were the opposite: head thrown back, teeth showing, the joy of unguarded laughter. Same person, same garment, two emotional states. The maroon stripes are the only constant — the thread connecting both identities.

Film

Analog grain at the generation level

Kodak Portra 400 color science, natural vignetting, and organic grain patterns were embedded into every image at the moment of creation — not layered in post. Subtle warm shifts in the shadows, a slight desaturation that feels like a print left in sunlight. The images feel like they were shot on a Contax T2 in a London flat, not rendered by a machine.

Intimacy

Portraits without a crew in the room

The tightest crop sits inches from the face. You see individual hairs, the texture of skin catching window light, the slight moisture on lips mid-laugh. This level of intimacy normally requires hours of rapport between photographer and subject. Here, the “subject” was never self-conscious, never tired, never performing. The vulnerability is structural, not staged.

Sound

Lo-fi warmth at 90 BPM

AI-generated instrumental: muted Rhodes keys over a slow, head-nodding beat. Lo-fi tape hiss and vinyl crackle baked in. The track doesn’t demand attention — it wraps around the portraits like warm light, letting the visual emotion lead. Synced so that cuts between black and white land precisely on the downbeat.

Creative direction

Black: composure

The black Beckenbauer is armor. Zip to the chin, beanie pulled low, gaze direct and unblinking. Shot with flat, overcast light that emphasizes the matte fabric and the maroon stripes as the single accent. Every frame is still, frontal, confrontational — a passport photo elevated to portraiture.

Navy Spot

White: release

The white Beckenbauer is surrender. Zip half-open, locs moving freely, the face cracked open with genuine laughter. Warmer light, tighter crop, motion blur on the edges. These are the frames between frames — the outtakes that every photographer wishes they had, except here they were generated deliberately.

Lover

Deliverables

Hero Video30 seconds — with custom AI lo-fi soundtrack
Editorial Portraits10 images — 5 Black + 5 White, 4K resolution
Product Reels4 portrait loops — subtle motion, breath, micro-expressions

Ready for: Instagram Feed & Reels, TikTok, product pages, editorial features, paid social.

The impact

85%

Cost reduction vs traditional portrait production

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