Champion revolutionized athleticwear by inventing the hoodie and pioneering Reverse Weave, a stitching method making fabric more durable.[1] These innovations fueled Champion’s rise in culture—from outfitting NFL, NBA, college teams, and USA Basketball’s 1992 “Dream Team,”[2] to being a fashion statement for athletes, musicians, and other celebrities.[3] A Reverse Weave Hoodie is even in the MOMA’s permanent collection.[4]

But Reverse Weave sales slowed as buyers aged[5] and Champion’s image became dated.[6] Young consumers, critical to brand health,[7] saw Champion as a brand they’d “find at discount stores” or “something my parents wear.”[8]

OBJECTIVE

Revitalize Champion and its signature franchise, Reverse Weave:

1) Boost Reverse Weave sales performance. Our most premium franchise is essential for growth.

2) Improve awareness, perceptions and trial among Gen-Z.

3) Breakthrough in culture. Athleticwear is flooded with big-spending competitors who drive culture. We needed to earn an unfair share of attention.

BACKGROUND & CONTEXT

Champion Reverse Weave, once a cultural icon, was relatively unknown to Gen-Z.

To drive contemporary relevance, we created Champion’s first-ever brand platform, Be Your Own Champion. It challenges sports’ win-at-all-costs mentality, encouraging people to play by their own rules. Given its halo effect on the portfolio, and its recent struggles, our first activation expressing this new platform would focus on the Reverse Weave franchise.

CREATIVE CHALLENGE

In a category flooded with innovation, where competitors outspend us more than 3-1,[9] simply highlighting product excellence wouldn’t work to get Reverse Weave on our young audience’s radar.

We needed to inject Reverse Weave into youth culture.

SOLUTION

Given our limited budget, we focused on a segment labeled “Trend Lovers,” heavy buyers of athleticwear who also have an oversized influence on culture.[10]

Digging into their lives, we uncovered 3 key findings that would help point to our solution:

-Being a Champion means integrity on and off the field – 78% value “competing well” over “winning trophies”[11]

-They over-index on creating content across social platforms[12]

-They live on TikTok[13]

We also recognized a paradox: Champion Reverse Weave, once famous, was almost invisible to them. It was an overlooked icon. With this in mind, we looked to culture for other overlooked icons.

Knowing our audience’s values (integrity and creativity) and where they spent their time (TikTok), we noticed something dissonant and troubling: White influencers were getting credit for dances originated by Black creators.[14]

This was so prominent that in July 2021, Black creators went on strike, highlighting this new form of cultural appropriation, and refusing to choreograph new dances.[15]

The movement raised awareness for one of TikTok’s first injustices. The #renegadechallenge, TikTok’s biggest hit, received +120MM views, transforming the careers of some white influencers.[16] Yet its true creator, Jalaiah Harmon, didn't receive credit until the trend was over.[17]

Our audience spent hours watching and replicating these dances, yet the creators deserving recognition were overlooked.

To revitalize our forgotten franchise, could we reverse these inequities and celebrate the incredible makers our audience admired?

Our solution? Reverse Mode: A campaign reversing everything, including the #renegadechallenge and the inequity behind it.

EXECUTION

We teamed up with #renegadechallenge original creator, Jalaiah Harmon, to create the Reverse Renegade, launching on TikTok and immediately giving her the spotlight she deserves.

With Jalaiah as our star, we seated the #ReverseRenegade across social with influencers who were popular for creating their own original dances. Then we encouraged viewers to learn the #ReverseRenegade and post their performances on TikTok or Instagram Reels.

Knowing limited edition drops are a big part of Trend Lover culture, we produced a small run of Reverse Weave Hoodies with a reversed Champion “C” logo, and only those who joined the #ReverseRenegade challenge could win one.

We leveraged our video content across social ecosystems where our audience lives, including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, as well as OTT and OLV on Hulu and YouTube. All assets drove directly to champion.com for the chance to purchase directly.