Jordan Brand has been in the news a lot over the last few days due to the departure of reigning NBA champion Dwayne Wade to Chinese shoe company Li-Ning. If you’ve paying more attention to that, than the players still rocking with the house that Mike and Tinker built, then you might have missed out on one of the most creative sneaker spots in quite sometime. "Cut Through L.A." is as much of a commercial for Clipper point guard Chris Paul's recently launched CP3.VI low cut signature shoe as it is a live art installation.
Crafted from the minds of Brandon Mugar & Andy Ferguson of Wieden + Kennedy NYC—the same guys who brought us Clio Award winning spots like this—the video is set in Venice Beach and features 90 Chris Paul lookalikes in a frozen state, exhibiting how Paul would cut through the famed Venice boardwalk, on his way to the hoop for a monster dunk. "We were looking to make it an event, that's the first intention," says Mugar.
The idea was brought to life by very dope director Andreas Nilsson, whose name you should know from his direction of the Kanye West featured, 2 Chainz hit single "Birthday Song" (don't act like you don't sing it when you're alone). In two and a half minutes, Nilsson manages to capture the essence of Paul's game and the oddball nature of Venice. His directorial eye was given added intensity thanks to Miike Snow's music playing underneath the suspended animation shots.
Though Paul was not featured in the commercial, the spot succeeds nonetheless. Even if artsy sneaker commercials are not your cup of tea, you must give props to the actors, for holding it down, especially the one's who stood on one foot or were suspended in mid-air during the shoot. That has to be tough.
