Nike uses facial contortion to demonstrate shoe’s flexibility

‘Nike Free Face’ is designed to promote the new Nike Free footwear range by drawing attention to its flexibility. Users are invited to adopt imaginative facial expressions, which in turn alter the shape of the shoe.

The application initially photographs the user’s normal facial expression, which is then used as a base to calculate facial flexibility from the eyebrows to the chin. This defines the diagonal movement of the shoe. The horizontal movement of the shoe is defined using the level of symmetry of the mouth.

In addition, the application recognises the colour of the user’s clothes and the background to automatically coordinate the colour of the shoe using the NikeiD customisation system.

Credits

Client: Nike Japan
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Tokyo
Project: Nike Free Face
ECD: Tota Hasegawa
Creative director: Caleb Jensen
Associate creative director: Naoki Ga
Copywriter: Andrew Miller, Konosuke Kamitani
Technical director: Toru Terashima (Root Communications)
Technical creative director: Seiichi Saito (Rhizomatiks)
Programmer: Tsuyoshi Tanaka (Root Communications)
Project manager: Reiko Kawaguchi (Reiko Kawaguchi)
Art director: Masanori Sakamoto (Deltro)
Interactive director/Flash developer: Ken Murayama (Deltro)
Markup Engineer: Shogo Yano (Deltro)
CG director: Toru Hayai (Taiyo Kikaku)
CG producer: Keisuke Nishina (Taiyo Kikaku)