Brand mash-up · Campaign concept

LacetheRainbow.

What happens when a performance sneaker brand and a candy brand share one idea? A speculative Nike × Skittles collaboration where performance meets pop.

Role
Concept, copy, art direction
Course
COM 605 · AI Empowered Creativity
Year
2025
Tools
ChatGPT
A running shoe in yellow, orange and green, the Nike swoosh in green, resting on a heap of multicolored Skittles against a rainbow gradient

The brief

Mash two brands that should never meet.

Where performance meets pop.

The assignment: pick two unrelated brands and build a collaboration that feels inevitable once you see it. I paired Nike's athletic innovation with Skittles' bold, youthful energy.

The overlap was color. Skittles has spent decades owning the rainbow ("Taste the Rainbow"), and sneaker culture runs on colorways. Swap one verb and the candy promise becomes a product: Lace the Rainbow.

The idea positions the mash-up as both a fashion statement and a sensory experience, answering modern consumers' craving for fun, color and individuality.

Audience

Gen Z and Millennials

Sneakerheads and streetwear buyers who grew up with the candy and now collect drops.

Insight

Nostalgia plus innovation

Childhood joy, carried by a product with real streetwear credibility.

Message

Express yourself boldly

Live colorfully, and never compromise performance for style.

The product line

Three drops, each a flavor.

Rather than one hero shoe, the collection works like a candy bag: each silhouette takes a flavor story and a colorway to match.

Lace the Rainbow poster: a multicolor running shoe on red with a tiny Skittles pouch hanging from the laces

Lace the Rainbow

The flagship. Every original flavor on one upper, with a mini Skittles pouch clipped to the laces as a collectible hang tag.

Silhouette · classic air-cushioned runnerFlavor · the original bag
Poster reading Fast. Fruity. Freak Mode. Zoom Freak Tropical Heat, with a yellow basketball shoe Tropical Heat poster showing a yellow and orange basketball shoe beside a bag of Skittles

Tropical Heat

A basketball silhouette in mango, citrus and lime. The performance story of the line: fast, fruity, built for the court.

Silhouette · signature basketball shoeFlavor · Tropical
Sweet and Sour Edition: two low-top sneakers, one orange-red, one yellow-green, on a dark green ground

Sweet & Sour

A mismatched pair for the lifestyle shelf: one sweet, one sour. Built to be photographed side by side.

Silhouette · low-top court classicFlavor · Sour

Copy system

One voice, two brands.

Every line had to sound like both parents at once: Nike's motivation and Skittles' mischief. Short, punchy, and built on wordplay that points back to the rainbow.

Lace the Rainbow.

Campaign lineA one-word swap on Skittles' own promise. Also the hashtag: #LaceTheRainbow.

Taste every step.

Out-of-homeTurns the candy's sense of taste into the shoe's sense of motion.

Fast. Fruity. Freak mode.

Tropical Heat dropThree beats, one per brand trait plus the athlete energy.

Fuel your game. Flex your flavor.

Social captionPerformance first, self-expression second, both in two words each.

Skittles-powered. Swoosh-approved.

Sign-offThe partnership in four words, credit split evenly.

In the wild

Out-of-home: color where the city is grey.

Transit and street placements put the most saturated thing on the block exactly where people are already moving: platforms, bus stops, rooftops.

Digital poster on a subway platform pillar showing Lace the Rainbow while a train passes
Subway platform digital: “Lace the Rainbow.” with #LaceTheRainbow.
Bus shelter poster with a rainbow gradient, floating candies and a green and orange sneaker
Bus shelter: rainbow gradient with floating candies.
Rooftop billboard on an old building showing Nike x Skittles Sweet and Sour Edition
Rooftop billboard: Sweet & Sour Edition.

Creative tone

Nike's ethos, Skittles' spirit.

Vibrant

Saturated flat grounds, one product, no clutter. Color does the talking.

Confident

Condensed all-caps headlines borrowed from sports advertising.

Playful

Candies spilling into frame, a pouch on a lace, flavors instead of colorways.

The result: a campaign that sparks curiosity, movement and joy.

How I worked with AI

ChatGPT for range. Me for the call.

Generative AI let me explore a full campaign, from product to placements, in the time a single poster used to take. The judgment stayed mine.

ChatGPT

Generated

Shoe concepts, key visuals, and mockups across subway, bus shelter, billboard and Instagram.

I

Directed

Chose the brand pairing and the insight: the rainbow both brands could share.

I

Edited

Shaped the headlines and captions into one copy system around “Lace the Rainbow.”

I

Curated

Kept the visuals that held the tone and organized them into three flavor drops.