The Challenge

Launch Anthony Edwards’ first signature shoe (AE 1) in a basketball category that had become "scientifically cold" and predictable. The goal was to reclaim the "swagger" and cultural edge that defined 90s basketball marketing while making it feel modern for a social-first generation.

The Comms Strategy

With a limited media budget, the challenge wasn't just what to say, it was how to make it travel. We briefed creative, PR, and social agency partners to develop content within the world of "Believe That", ensuring every piece of work felt like it came from the same place regardless of who made it.

We then built a release architecture that paired content drops with real IRL moments:

• Ant’s Favorite Holiday (Halloween)

• a standout game

• a performance that silenced doubters.

Rather than one big launch, I identified and sold in these moments to the team, sequencing releases to ride the cultural conversation already happening around Ant. The result was a campaign that felt massive despite a limited budget—turning the consumer into the medium as people shared the clips not as ads, but as "Ant being Ant."

The Results

The campaign generated significant earned media coverage and organic social conversation that far outpaced the paid media investment. More importantly, "Believe That" shifted the conversation around basketball shoe marketing, moving the category away from performance science and back toward cultural swagger, and changing the playbook for how signature sneakers get launched.