Sanuk

I’ve done a lot of creative storytelling projects with Sanuk and can honestly say they were all fun. Most of the projects began with me assembling a crew of creators to travel and have an adventure with Sanuk ambassadors. These stories were used on social media, printed in Stay Wild magazine, and the photos were used in all Sanuk’s marketing needs from digi-newsletters to printed-catalogs.

Working with people as partners rather than clients, talent, or freelancers allows all of us to create things that go well beyond the deliverables list of product shots. We made real life adventure stories together and translated Sanuk’s brand values into honest human values. This work really connected with the audience.

Que Bola Cuba

This job changed my life. I got a tattoo, drew things that others got tattooed, made some new friends for life, and met my future wife. I also managed to assemble a solid crew of content creators to work with the Sanuk team and some local Cuban surf friends to create a deeply meaningful story. All that was required was to feature Sanuk ambassadors wearing the new line of footwear in a colorful location. We did that and so much more!

My creative direction was to tell a true adventure story from over the shoulders of locals. I didn’t expect they would be so generous and share so much of their lives with us. I wrote, produced, filmed, and edited the story.

The Montauk Beast

Sanuk is know for sunny beach life, so to feature their winter line I proposed we go to NY to surf in the middle of winter. It was cold, but we kept warm with the locals. There wasn’t much surf for most of the shoot, so we explored and put the products into real life fun-making situations. All the deliverables were met and the ad-like content disguised as a story became an actual story when we let go of expectations and followed what we found once we got there.

Island Foxes

Cross promotion usually smells like slimy business dealings to me, pretty sure most people can smell it too. When I planned this project I wanted to take a number of different brands out along with Sanuk to redefine cross promotion as a super fun opportunity to make something meaningful together. Sanuk agreed that it was possible, so I invited Mokubi Threads, Mowgli Surf, Snow Peak, UCO flashlights, Oru Kayaks, and Sierra Designs tents. Sure we got lots of authentic product shots and made content for social media, but we also made a fun story that gave the product a reason to be there.

Always Comfortable

When I first met with Sanuk I made it clear that we could tell stories together in Stay Wild magazine that go beyond the safety net of brand standards. They totaly understood the creative opportunity and first print ad they ran featured their ambassador Dave Rastovich heading to surf naked and the tag line Never Uncomfortable. To show them I fully supported their bold move we did a fashion shoot on Oahu featuring only shoes and smiles.

Assembling teams is one of my favorite things to do. It requires me paying attention to what other would consider a dream job and then bringing them together with others who have the same dream. I didn’t step foot on this shoot, but I creative directed the team remotely. They had all that they needed including creative freedom, so they had a blast and it came though in the work.