New Balance: Fashion WEek Exception Spotting

“New Balance wanted to celebrate individuals who are expressing themselves in independent and distinctive ways. New York Fashion Week provided the background to generate excitement for the Fresh Foam Cruz Nubuck shoe.

We created real-time exception spotting technology that scanned crowds of people, gathered inputs, and identified the anomalies and exceptions to the "norm."

In the week leading up to the activation on September 6, computer vision technology captured statistics about fashion choices of thousands of pedestrians in New York's Soho neighborhood. On the day of the event, this data was used to identify who were the exceptions to the norm.” - Tool of North America

Credits:
Release Year: 2018
Install Location: Soho, New York City
Project Type: Experiential, Real-Time, Interactive, AI, Short Term 2018 Fashion Week Activation
Agency: VML
Production Company: TOOL OF NORTH AMERICA
Executive Producer: ADAM BASKIN
Senior Experiential Producer: LAUREN BICKERS
Creative Director / Technical Director: BEN PRIDDY
Software Development: nøcomputer
Content Management and Hardware: STUDIO BLACK

Press:
(2019-03-04) nøcomputer. “Exception Spotting | New Balance. Using computer vision to spot exceptions in a crowd” Medium 04 Mar. 2019.
(2018-09-07) Yan, Michelle. “New Balance used AI to spot trendsetters during Fashion Week – Did we make the cut?” Mashable. 07 Sep. 2018.
(2018-08-29) Segran, Elizabeth. “New Balance is watching you” Fast Company 29 Aug. 2018.

Awards:
(2019) Best Use of AI In An Experiential Activation. AdWeek Experience Awards 2019.