THE OG EVOLUTION.
MORE ORIGINAL THAN EVER.

The development and crafting of the Evo*Editions brand has been one of the most fulfilling projects in my career. The goal of the program was to use The Evolution Basketball (#1 selling game ball) as a canvas for our internal product squad to create limited-edition designs. In order to build a community of die hard fans, we decided to make these basketballs exclusively available on the Wilson Live app. Because the patterns are limited to the Wilson and Evolution script, these basketballs retain full playability and are licensed for by the NFHA unlike many other competing products in the market.

Beyond creating interesting designs, we saw this as an opportunity to build a system of collectable, game-ready products for the avid hooper / consumers in touch with the culture surrounding the game. The first step was to build a system of marks to brand the collection and build some recognition around the program.

BRANDING THE SYSTEM

One of the core elements to distinguish an Evo*Editions is the embossed asterisk on the top panel of each ball. The asterisk design is inspired by the unique featured pattern, so I felt this would be a good place to build equity. 

The above shows the final badge + a look at the hero color palette / texture. This marks has the flexibility to highlight specific drops as well which was important because, as the collection grows, we want people to be proud of having drop 106, 201, etc.

BUILDING UNIQUE STORIES

In 2022 we launched the program with 3 drops. These were extremely limited product runs and featured two designs each: one product that was 1/50 and one that was a true 1OF1. My role was to plan / concept / be onsite to art direct photoshoots, collaborate with internal strategist to build a compelling story, and create all toolkit assets (static and motion). We really wanted each of these to have their own personality, as the year went on, we got a bit better at finding locations to highlight each pattern with every shoot. ALL PHOTO CREDIT GOES TO PETE DONAHOE (@petetheshooter).

MULTI-CHANNEL EXECUTION

For each drop we executed strategic, multi-channel, marketing toolkits. I built assets for in-app user journeys, eBlasts, Wilson.com, paid & organic social, as well as print collateral. Every toolkit had a unique look and story to match the pattern. With each drop, I began to learn how to use the strengths of each channel while maintaining a consistent / branded look.

Overall the first year of the program was a huge success. The average sellout time was 5 days, with our fastest being just over 24 hours! We gained 11,000 new users and collected a lot of data around our rollout strategy and performance. Because of these metrics, we had the opportunity to expand the program substantially for 2023. 12 unique products dropping the first week of every month. 250 of each up for grabs. To read more about the 2023 collection, please click here (2023 CASE STUDY COMING SOON!).