Lazy Sneakers

Creating maximum attention on a shoe string

In Aotearoa New Zealand, thousands of pairs of top-quality sports shoes lie around, spare and unused, not living up to their potential. Yet, thousands of young New Zealanders with incredible potential in sports, dance, and life are unable to participate because they don’t have the right shoes or any shoes at all. The aim of the charity Lazy Sneakers is to match these shoes with these kids. The charity was developed by 12-year-old Maia Mariner in 2017.

In 2022, Lazy Sneakers wanted to create more awareness and attract donations of quality top-brand sneakers that create a great sense of pride and self-worth with recipients. If we happened to catch the attention of sports shoe companies to encourage donations of brand new sneakers to the cause, that would be a bonus.

With a limited budget, cut through mattered. So, we took to the streets with a series of posters that co-opted the logos of the world’s top brand sneakers and matched them to their worthy recipients. We wanted to grab the attention of sneaker lovers. Shot on film and carefully styled, at first glance, it might look like a fashion or sport shoe poster. On inspection, you would see these are local kids, on local streets, wearing thrifted gear and top-quality sneakers donated via Lazy Sneakers.

The street poster campaign ran in three high profile sites with daily foot traffic of over 20,000. As fast as the posters could be put up, they were photographed, shared and “collected” by sneaker lovers. Shoe donations poured in. Since the campaign ran, in May and June alone, more than 750 pairs of top brand sports shoes have been donated, with a retail value of over NZ$100,000. These have included sizeable donations of brand new shoes from top sports shoe companies.