Clarks’ Post

For the past four years, Clarks has proudly partnered with The Elephant Room, an agency dedicated to inclusivity. This Pride month, Clarks is once again teaming up with The Elephant Room to co-host their innovative mentoring programme, 'One Month Mentors', aimed at supporting talent in the LGBTQ community. In July, we will match 10 mentees with 10 leaders in the creative field from the LGBTQ community. Through this partnership, we aim to forge valuable connections and provide career development opportunities for young LGBTQ professionals. For those interested, our program will kick off in July, offering a month-long immersion into various businesses, mentorships, and open dialogues, creating a safe environment for conversation and growth. To sign up as a mentor: https://lnkd.in/epC5Rm7q To sign up as a mentee: https://lnkd.in/eNQmvFTv Questions? Email: [email protected] Let's come together to foster and celebrate young creative talent!

In the words of one of the world’s most famous Wallabee wearers – NY rap legend, Wu-Tang member and our official Wallabee Day ambassador - Raekwon “WE NEED TO HAVE A WALLABEE DAY. WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO SAY TODAY IS THE DAY EVERYBODY THROWS THEIR JOINTS ON.” Today, we are excited to celebrate our inaugural Wallabee Day.     Legend has it that on 26th April 1971, an alarm was raised at New York’s John F Kennedy Airport, with customs teams rapidly assembling cages to accept the 4,176 Wallabees that were expected to arrive that day from Clarks. Customs called Clarks to check the animals were safe to handle and to discuss the lack of paperwork supplied to transport this number of live animals. There was a sense of relief (but also fury) when airport staff were informed that the crates did not, in fact, contain live animals, but the new Wallabee shoe silhouette. To honour our style that has shaken things up from day one, today we celebrate the first ever Wallabee Day, which will now take place annually on April 26th. Tara McRae, Chief Marketing & Digital Officer comments: “We are delighted to celebrate the launch of our first Wallabee Day. It’s such an iconic shoe loved by people across the world and has severed as a blank canvas to artists, creators and cultures over many generations. Wallabee Day allows us to celebrate not just the shoe, but also all of the collaborators who help us reinvent the story, year after year.” In the spirit of the incredible history of Wallabee adaptation, we’ve held a social media competition, for our community to submit Wallabees their way, with incredible artistic creativity being displayed. We’ve teamed up with some our best global partners to release exclusive adaptations of the Wallabee including DOE in Shanghai, Tobyato in Singapore, Paper Boy in Paris, Percival in London and X-Large in Tokyo. We’ve also worked with legendary New Jersey based retailer Packer Shoes for a custom photo editorial focused on the classic maple Wallabee In addition, we’ve held Wallabee Day activations with partners including Vibram in Boston, our Creative Specialist Set Free Richardson in New York, and at our stores in London, Beijing, and new flagship in Madrid. We are now busy planning our Wallabee Day celebration for April 26th 2025… so make sure to have your Wallabees ready. 

We are thrilled to announce that we have WON the 2024 Webby Award for best “AI, Metaverse & Virtual – Retail & Shopping” campaign for ‘Beyond Worlds: A Music Metaverse Experience’.   In May of 2023, we partnered with Empire Records and Nigerian superstar, Fireboy DML, to bring a one of a kind live digital concert experience to the metaverse, supported by Nigerian singer, Nissi and Cape Verdean American singer-songwriter, June Freedom. Fans were able to watch as the artists transcended the physical limitations of a real-world performance, bringing a magical and interactive show to life in three distinct worlds built uniquely to showcase each artist within the Metaverse. The campaign also showcased a strong commercial focus by highlighting our seasonal Jacquard pack product both during the concert, and by extending into Clarks Originals ecom and retail environments globally, with brand new campaign assets featuring Fireboy DML wearing the key styles. We are proud to receive this prestigious award (our first Webby Award for Clarks) and be recognized amongst 13,000 competing submissions, demonstrating that our almost 200-year-old brand is as pioneering today as it was in 1825! You can watch the full Beyond Worlds experience here - https://lnkd.in/e_v-_2qu

At Clarks, we have a long-standing history of supporting women’s rights, and this is continued to this day through constantly reflecting and looking at ways we can support global agendas to empower people with the freedom to move comfortably, as they are. This March 2024, in honour of international women’s month and its theme ‘inspire inclusion’, we once again collaborated with our partners, The Elephant Room , to craft a unique mentoring programme to facilitate long term, sustainable relationships and establish an empowering and supportive network for our female and non-binary mentees as they navigate their careers.

Today, we launch the latest installment of our “Clarks and …” video series, which explores the various global subcultures that have adopted our almost 200-year-old brand, with the release of Sunset: A Clarks and Manchester Film. This campaign celebrates the legacy of the underground rave scene of Manchester of the the 90s and dives into the relevance of Clarks in this influential subculture. The campaign centers around the Sunset film which serves as “A Love Letter to the Rave” and an uplifting tribute to the heady nights of the nineties. During this game-changing era, rave music met with a fresh wave of indie bands and bedroom producers to evoke a powerful new spirit of freedom across the country. Underground raves and super clubs like the Hacienda, inspired a worldwide dance movement, and Clarks can proudly say its shoes were often the footwear of choice for this free-thinking generation that loved to dance the night away. The campaign film, shot by director, Glenn Kitson, is a fitting tribute to the era when a great night out with friends could lead to endless possibilities. Take in the cars, fashion, club heroes, the Wallabee shoes that showed off those legendary dance moves, and the spirit of a new generation that still believes in the right to party. Regarding the campaign, Glenn Kitson says: “I’ve always worn Clarks, Wallabees in particular. They’re a staple of mine. The brand has genuine authenticity in so many communities and cultures, and for this project we wanted to explore rave culture, especially up North. It was important to join the dots between the past and the present and to show how echoes of the past are just as relevant with the youth of today. Featured throughout the campaign, you will see an assortment of our iconic Clarks originals styles as well as products from our SS24 collection inspired by the spirit of the rave, including our brand new Yin-Yang collection, released just in time for summer. This campaign is an ode to the rave culture that is now embedded in the soul of the city and still enjoyed all over the world. Inspired by Manchester then, ready for the party now.

In 2023 we launched PLAYPRINTS World on Roblox, where it quickly garnered 3.8 million game plays and later went on to win Best Metaverse Activation at The Drum Awards. Aligning with the launch of our newest PLAYPRINTS styles featuring print soles and kids' favourite characters, today, in partnership with Super League , we’re thrilled to launch a new update to PLAYPRINTS World on Roblox. In our updated game early learners can once again explore, create, learn and play in this fun, immersive space and get to know the unique characters as they conquer the new quest. Dream it. Make it. Play it. Play the game: https://lnkd.in/eDVHAHBj Shop the collection: https://lnkd.in/eu6Yas6B

At Clarks, we have a long-standing history of supporting women’s rights, and this is continued to this day through constantly reflecting and looking at ways we can support global agendas to empower people with the freedom to move comfortably, as they are. This March, in honour of international women’s month and its theme ‘inspire inclusion’, we are collaborating with our partners, The Elephant Room, to craft a unique mentoring programme to facilitate long term, sustainable relationships and establish an empowering and supportive network for our mentees as they navigate their careers.   Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eX4yV9Ku

Martine rose for Clarks Self-made. Self-defined. British-Jamaican designer Martine Rose brings her authentic style to Clarks with an exclusive collection inspired by our unbeatable comfort. Renowned for her eponymous label, Martine reinterprets some of our most iconic silhouettes, creating statement shoes that look and feel like pillows. You’ll never want to take them off.   As Clarks' first-ever guest creative director, Martine was drawn to our ever-evolving dedication to unbeatable comfort, and wanted to take the concept to the next level by creating shoes that look and feel like pillows. Featuring four iconic Clarks’ silhouettes – The Oxford, The Sandal, The Loafer, and Torhill Hi – the Coming Up Roses Collection uses soft, full-grain sheep-leather uppers with puffy duck down filling – a technique used for the first time in Clarks' 200 years of craft. Shop the collection: https://lnkd.in/eUhgdrTt

CLARKS & POTENT REACH FOUNDATION We are proud to have recently partnered with Ghanaian-American, LA-based Creative Director Kwabena Asante “K.O.” to donate pairs of Wallabees™ and contribute towards school supplies for the students of King Rich Academy in Ghana through the Potent Reach Foundation. The Reach Project is a Philanthropic foundation with a creative edge rooted in K.O.'s Ghanaian Heritage with intentions of improving the lives of others across the globe. As a nod to Ghana’s rich history, K.O. designed a golden fob for each pair to symbolize how prior to Ghana’s independence the country was referred to as the Gold Coast and or “El Mina”, meaning the mine, due to the large supply of Gold found in land. Each fob also features the “Sankofa” Symbol. In Ghanaian culture, there is an age-old proverb the community stands on and it is called ‘Sankofa’ which means to reach back and get it — for us this means to reach back to our roots and support where we can. Clarks is built on strong community values. Staying true to our Clark family roots, we support and protect the communities where we live and work, too – investing in their futures, so we can all move forward together. #movetheworldahead #ClarksOriginals