Say what you mean, do what you love and fucking send it
RETRO SUB-CULTURE AND FUTURE-FACING DESIGN TO TAKE AN INDIE FOOTWEAR BRAND GLOBAL
Founded by former British CrossFit athlete Benjamin Massey, R.A.D is a performance footwear brand that caters to the requirements of CrossFit and functional training athletes, while keeping a firm focus on style, comfort and contemporary cultural forms. In 2019, Massey enlisted us to create a comprehensive brand identity and expression for R.A.D. Over the next three years, we developed his vision into a fully-fledged sportswear brand built to compete with the heavyweights and household names.
Our unique, immersed approach drew on the extreme sport subcultures that first bridged the divides between fashion, fitness and creative expression at the turn of the 1990s. By incorporating visual artifacts from that era into the R.A.D identity – such as VHS cassette tapes, glossy print magazine spreads, fluorescent colour schemes and vibrant mash-ups of analogue and digital aesthetics – we could situate R.A.D within a world much broader than training and gym culture, while locating those worlds within R.A.D’s own DNA. The brand is distinguished from the hyper-glossy, hyper-competitive aesthetic that has largely defined CrossFit and fitness culture in recent years, and R.A.D is positioned as a footwear brand for more than fitness fanatics alone.
Our unique, immersed approach drew on the extreme sport subcultures that first bridged the divides between fashion, fitness and creative expression at the turn of the 1990s. By incorporating visual artifacts from that era into the R.A.D identity – such as VHS cassette tapes, glossy print magazine spreads, fluorescent colour schemes and vibrant mash-ups of analogue and digital aesthetics – we could situate R.A.D within a world much broader than training and gym culture, while locating those worlds within R.A.D’s own DNA. The brand is distinguished from the hyper-glossy, hyper-competitive aesthetic that has largely defined CrossFit and fitness culture in recent years, and R.A.D is positioned as a footwear brand for more than fitness fanatics alone.
Rather than producing content to fit the audiences, we draw from the authentic perspectives of our own team and those we work with. By blending these references and cultural touchpoints with artifacts from our collective cultural memory, and situating them within a sharp, forward-thinking design discipline, we created an aesthetic that is both familiar and distinctive; nostalgic and progressive; embedded and impactful.
Merging fitness, fashion and creative expression
The success of R.A.D and the R.A.D ONE is the result of long-standing, dedicated collaboration between agency and client. We were invited and encouraged to use our expertise and cultural acumen to empower an independent company to reject the well-worn paths and create an expression unique to itself. Now, R.A.D is an indie footwear brand that proudly stands toe-to-toe with the biggest names in the industry – on its own terms
