Case Study: rebel – New Boots Just Landed
When the boots are from another world, you don’t just stock them. You stage their arrival.
When the boots are from another world, you don’t just stock them. You stage their arrival.
In a football market flooded with product noise, how do you make boot launches feel like headline news? You land them—literally.
New Boots Just Landed was a genre-smashing campaign that took its cues from sci-fi blockbusters and cinematic storytelling to deliver a launch moment like no other. Inspired by the otherworldly designs of the new season's football boots—with themes of magma, lava, and elemental power—we created a campaign that felt less like retail and more like revelation.
The narrative opens in eerie calm. Across suburbs, stadiums and training fields, something shifts. Birds stop singing. Streetlights flicker. Athletes from every football code—rugby, AFL, soccer—pause mid-move, compelled by a presence in the sky. Above them: glowing, meteor-like lights cutting through the clouds, headed toward an unknown destination.
We follow them as they walk—wordless, focused—through the streets, toward a single point: a rebel store.
Then the drop.
A cluster of what appear to be meteors crash into the roof of the store. Debris rains down. Light floods upward. The athletes step through the wreckage, awe-struck but calm. Inside, suspended mid-air in beams of ethereal light: the new football boots.
Each pair is lit like an artefact. The colourways feel alien—magma reds, galactic blues, graphite textures. The campaign’s punchline arrives when Greg Inglis, renowned for his size and strength, reaches out to touch one of the boots… and zaps himself. A beat. He blinks, shakes his finger, shrugs. A moment of levity. Then the title:
New Boots Just Landed. Only at rebel.
Why it worked:
This campaign landed at the perfect time—when sneaker culture and performance footwear were being treated more and more like collectible drops, and audiences expected theatre, not just utility.
It tapped into:
Drop culture aesthetics, where product arrivals feel like cosmic events.
Transmedia styling—blending sports retail with the language of sci-fi and cinematic world-building.
Multi-code representation, reinforcing rebel’s role as the singular destination for football in Australia, no matter the code.
From a behavioural science lens, it leveraged novelty bias, pattern interruption, and emotional priming through suspense and surprise. It positioned boots as more than equipment—they were artefacts of power, mystery, and desire.
Results:
51% increase in boot sales YoY during campaign launch window
5.2M video views across TV, YouTube, social, and in-store media
Strongest social sharing of any rebel campaign that season, especially among younger male demographics
37% increase in foot traffic across flagship locations in the first two weeks
Re-posted and endorsed by multiple featured athletes across their channels, extending organic reach significantly
Why it mattered:
Because boots aren’t just tools—they’re symbols. New Boots Just Landed gave rebel a bold, theatrical platform to own the launch space, deliver delight, and cement itself as the spiritual home of football in Australia.