adidas BACK TO SCHOOL
THE ASSIGNMENT?
DO MORE. WITH LESS.
The back-to-school assignment came with a pretty aggressive syllabus: more content than the previous year, more talent, $100K less in production budget, and three shoot days to pull it off. I helped build and lead the 50-person production behind adidas’ 2026 back to school campaign, turning that equation into an ambitious library of lifestyle, sport, product and athlete content without letting the constraints show up in the work.
THE DETAILS
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THE DETAILS *
THE ASSIGNMENT
Create a world that felt like actual school. Real play. Real friendships. Individual style. Product present, but never overly staged. And build enough range into the capture to work across the full ecosystem – from campaign and retail to paid social and athlete storytelling.
THE TEST
Compress what realistically wanted a week or more of production into 3 shoot days: 3 schools, 50 crew, 14 talent, 2 pro athletes, 45 looks and 150+ pages of shots. All with more content than the year before, a smaller budget, and very little room for misses.
THE GAME PLAN
Build the right team. Then stay light on our feet. I sourced and vetted much of the Atlanta crew, led a six-person production team and helped keep creative standards high as schedules shifted, staffing gaps appeared and athlete travel changed in real time.
THE RESULTS
Nearly the entire capture list in the can and a multi-format library of 170+ lifestyle, sport, product, retail and athlete assets now rolling out across the adidas ecosystem with virtually no trace of what it took to get there.
CLIENT
adidas North America
YEAR
2026
PARTNER
Mesa Lange Productions
ROLE
Production Management / Creative Strategy
Bringing a senior creative lens to the logistics 👉 protecting concept + craft from pre-pro through capture.
KEY CONTRIBUTORS
Creative Direction: Sara Schumacher
Art Direction: Katie Beasley, Colin Sias
Photography: Lucas Garrido (on-model), Ben Sellon (off-model)
DP: Corey Rood
Producers: Mesa Lange, Sherelle Williams
Production Design: Summer St. John
Styling: Amelia Johnson
HMUA: Jules Thomas, Janis Lozano
LOCATION
Atlanta, GA
SCOPE
6 weeks of prep · 3 shoot days · 1 week of post-production
SCALE
50 crew · 14 talent · 7 parents · 2 athletes · 12 vendors
DELIVERABLES
150 stills · 8 motion assets
