NEW YORK — Cole Haan, the iconic American lifestyle footwear and accessories brand and retailer, is excited to announce its Spring 2016 campaign, The Art of Elegant Innovation, shot by Sebastian Kim. This season, the brand celebrates extraordinary design achievement by pairing New York architectural wonder, the World Trade Center Oculus, with the brand’s pinnacle design innovation: ZerøGrand.
This campaign marks the first time a brand has shot at the World Trade Center Oculus, also known as the WTC Transportation Hub, a testament to Cole Haan as the true proponent of elegant innovation through the lens of art, design and architecture. The Oculus was designed by the notable Santiago Calatrava. It is a visually stunning yet incredibly functional work of art and was created to mobilize hundreds of thousands of commuters daily. Evoking the elegance and strength of the hub, Cole Haan’s ZerøGrand collection uses proprietary Grand.OS technology to offer consumers and commuters alike an experience that is astonishingly lightweight, adaptively flexible, responsively cushioned and dynamically breathable. This authentic collision of craft, style and engineering is elegant innovation.
Cole Haan taps into its multi-year partnership with the New York City Ballet, featuring ballerinas Sara Mearns, Megan Fairchild and Gretchen Smith as the key subjects of the campaign. Serving as the perfect storytellers to convey the brand’s message, “The Art of Elegant Innovation”, their choreographed movement is analogous to both architecture and the ZerøGrand collection, as these dancers exude a remarkable and noteworthy mix of elegance and strength. They are joined for the first time by male New York City Ballet dancers Craig Hall and Adrian Danchig-Waring to showcase Cole Haan’s dual-gender ZerøGrand collection.
“Being able to shoot at a world renowned site, that holds such a special place in New Yorkers hearts, gave me such a sense of pride to be part of this campaign. The Art of Elegant Innovation celebrates and combines the beauty of New York with architecture, artistry and craftsmanship. I am honored to help bring that to life,” said Sara Mearns, New York City Ballet dancer.
The core values that unite this stunning choreography, architecture and innovation of ZerøGrand are woven seamlessly throughout the still imagery and accompanying content series: classic heritage, modern relevance and fearless reinvention. By exploring these parallels between New York City Ballet dancers and the Oculus, Cole Haan highlights the key ZerøGrand product for the season, including an array of footwear, outerwear, eyewear and jewelry.
“Cole Haan is a practitioner of Elegant Innovation. By shooting at Calatrava’s magnificent once-in- a-century masterpiece that is the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, we continue to tell our brand’s story. We are humbled and delighted to pioneer the use of this landmark as a backdrop to our products and our partners from the New York City Ballet,” said David Maddocks, Cole Haan’s Chief Marketing Officer and General Manager of Business Development.
These new styles debuting in Spring 2016 include the Women’s ZerøGrand Perforated Trainer, Women’s ZerøGrand Stagedoor Sneaker and Men’s ZerøGrand Perforated Sneaker. The new ZerøGrand silhouettes embody the integration of innovation and craftsmanship in a wholly engineered product that represents one complete idea through and through. The Spring 2016 collection is available on ColeHaan.com and in Cole Haan Stores/
Additionally, to view this still imagery and video that embodies the inspiration behind the collaboration, visit ColeHaan.com during the official launch on Monday March 7, 2016.
SOURCE: Cole Haan
