Maharishi

January 2020 ––

Maharishi By You is so much more than a shoe. It is a meeting of legends — Nike and Maharishi bringing together their expertise to create not only a sneaker, but a philosophy. It is a coalition of nature and technology — using cutting-edge design to both celebrate the natural world and produce a product that honors it. And it requires an elevation of execution — infusing innovation to change how image campaigns are captured by using military camera technologies to turn an image into an immersion.

The dream-team of Munkowitz, Toros Kose, Peiter Hergert, Dr. Joseph Picard and SoundsRed had the opportunity to create a memorable, impactful image campaign that is more than just relevant to the spirit of Maharishi By You, but becomes a complete encapsulation of it. The team utilized special military grade camera technologies to present surrealist, thematic environments that the shoes exist in. What is so inspiring about these camera techniques is how they register the invisible – showing us what is normally unseen. How underneath any image is an alternate reality teeming in its vivid existence.

This is true for the vibrant colors we find in foliage within the Infrared Light Spectrum, whatever lies beneath total darkness with Night Vision, the thermal energy coursing underneath the surface and an inverted view of that spectrum in Thermal Imaging. They are military technologies that were used to create innovative art, much as the Maharishi By You’s take on military fabrics and patterns create enduring fashion.

The Concept

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These shoes are making a bold statement about our world. Where we are being fed a binary story about nature and technology, these shoes pair Nike’s AirMax 720 with the Maharishi Leopard Camo Print to create an artifact that proves that to really adapt is to marry the two. If camouflage is an “abstract rendition of nature,” then our leopard print is a co-opting of the co-opting – nature redesigned in graphic form created camo.

Camo is a symbol of the military, and yet with the Nike Maharishis we are reconnecting to our animal selves. Merging leopard print and camouflage for a new way to symbolically connect back to where camo began: nature. And Maharishi’s military inspiration also gives us a means to serve nature. The hardiness of military clothing and handcrafted utilitarianism is an antidote to the disintegrating ephemerality of fast fashion. Shoes that say so much need a very particular kind of visual campaign that can encompass all of that depth.

The Design

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Because the execution brought together so many elements — from the camera technologies directly developed by the military, the art direction that immersed the shoes in nature, to the hand-retouching and intensely detailed motion design during post production— they were able to not only capture, but embody the ethos of Maharishi By You.

Adaptation is not just blending in perfectly, but immersion in the elements so much so that eventually — the elements change you and you become one with nature. So total immersion, total oneness was the goal here, within every immaculate detail.

The Print Campaign

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For the print campaign, the team created multi-layered images that spoke to the multifaceted meaning of the Maharishi By You’s. the marriage of nature and technology – embracing Military seen through the lens of pacifism. It’s a military-inspired world, taking the technology honed for war, but transforming it for art and nature. So the images should feel elevated and complex, never saying just one thing.

To achieve this, the team combined photography plates to have the ultimate control in applying rich texture to create the ideal synthesis, to give an image soul through film grain and immense detailing – translating that spirit to give it that grit and timeless analog feeling. 

Behind the Scenes

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To achieve this campaign, the team built an intricate set in-studio where they could completely control the elements. As a result, they played in a lush jungle that embraced the military and nature vibe to the utmost. The key word here was texture. The foliage, the grit, the boulders, sand, and paint, we’re talking maximum texture, layering the elements to create real depth in the frame. Objects in the foreground and background, the rocks and minerals creating a cool ground plane to complement the verdant jungle textures. Nothing perfectly evenly placed, rich with layers that were further augmented in post, while judiciously using negative space in tandem with the disparate textures for a harmonious complexity to immerse the eye.