Asics Blast Series (2025)
“Marketing has finally peaked. This is the new standard from here on out and I expect nothing less.” @MedicineRunner
When Asics reached out to our creative team for a brand takeover, we were all really excited about the opportunity. Our company has done a ton of brand work for shoe companies, but this one was… a bit unique.
After a few rounds of discussions with Asics and the Running Warehouse teams, a concept for four super heroes representing one of four unique products in their new series of BLAST running shoes. Since Asics is a Japanese brand, we pitched doing an anime-inspired video that would take influence from the aesthetics, but more importantly the workflow of a traditional anime studio: A high quality production with barely any budget, all with a quick turnaround. Luckily, working alongside anime producers in the past, as is working within strict limitations is a passion of mine that helped me feel right at home working on this highly unique project.
Not being an anime fan, the video’s director Kash Dierksheide needed references for the project, which meant pulling a lot of references from my childhood and a couple modern examples too. As a kid growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, a few favorites included Ranma ½, Slam Dunk, Fist of the North Star, and a ton more. I also pulled cutscene references from old video games, like the original Ninja Gaiden on NES.
After watching countless videos for the best examples, I ended up pulling the trailer for Akria– since it is perhaps the most well received anime of all time. We studied the iconic film’s matte paintings, its camera movements, sound design… everything that made this anime The Best Anime!
Aside from an anime workflow, we decided to intentionally experiment with a blend of AI and stock assets in order to relieve the limitations on our three-person project. Kash began with a simple hand-drawn sketch of a character he named “Running Steve” knowing that it would take the power of artificial intelligence to visualize me running, as it never happens in real life. While being familiar with the controversy over AI generated anime filters (like those seen on Instagram), we chose to remain cautious, utilizing an 80/20 rule, where AI would help with 20% of the project’s various needs to give it a polish we would otherwise unable to do as a small team without the time to animate the characters, as I’ve done in the past.
While Kash generated character run cycles from many angles, backgrounds, and other elements needed for the video, product photographer Daniel Hernandez shot the shoes and processed them so that they’d rest with the aesthetics of the rest of the video. As they kept busy with the visual side of production, I began on the audio production building out a quick proof of concept in a matter of days that featured 1 of the 4 shoes, which ended up being in a cyberpunk setting. Demo-ing a visually stunning chapter with an epic soundtrack (featuring music from one of my old projects) allowed us to move into full production.
As Kash and Daniel completed edits for the remaining 3 chapters of the video’s story, I began full production on the audio side of things. We had a temporary script that utilized a text-to-speech AI called 11 Labs to achieve the video’s rough pacing. Once the script was in a good place, I reviewed voice actors’ demo submission to find someone with the right fit to play Running Steve’s inner monologue as the character evolves throughout the video.
Eventually, I found Ryohei Yabunaka, a native Japanese voice actor who had a strong collection of reading styles whose English was minimal. With our 80/20 rule in mind, I was able to give voice direction using my extensive experience in VO recording sessions. Chat GPT translated my direction into a Kanji script for Ryohei, who delivered an amazing read, blending all of the voices seamlessly. After some AI noise removal in Ryohei’s recordings, we did an additional foley pass to collect original assets like grunts, jumps, and demonic laughs, it was onto designing the rest of the audio for the video including sound design, mixing, mastering, and more.
With each chapter having a different feel, I used influences that pulled Japanese aesthetics to represent speed, character, and charm of each shoe. For the fastest shoe, the sounds of a Shinkansen bullet train. For the most responsive shoe, the sounds of explosions. Each chapter felt unique, especially thanks to the music direction that Kash I developed, again lending another layer of cohesion to the production.
To wrap everything up on the project up with a nice bow, we had to make sure the final touches were right. I picked the font (MS PMincho) for the subtitles to reflect the genuine Japanese subtitle typeface of the era, plus… every great video needs a great thumbnail.
I continued with the direct inspiration from Akira, making a spoof of the original movie poster from 1988, an aerial ¾ view of the film’s protagonist walking toward his iconic motorcycle, turned into Running Steve sprinting toward his favorite shoe from the BLAST SERIES. Google Translate helped with the Hirabana translations of BLAST and SERIES on the sides of the thumbnail. I chose a brush script font to lay over the bold, blocky English type and re-created the “broken concrete texture” with a shard of broken glass, as well as hand drawing in the airbrush aesthetic seen on the background of the poster.
Working on the creative side of the sports industry for the past handful of years, I’ve found myself in the situation of being around a ton of sports fanatics while not being much of a sports person, myself. I do love live baseball, but I’ve never been one for competition outside of speedrunning video games, IRL billiards, and the occasional Magic: The Gathering tournament. Sometimes being the black sheep of the creative studio can offer a unique perspective toward a project, to inject new ideas that might not really make sense at first but that result in satisfied clients and effective campaigns. I’m no stranger to having my oddball projects make big impacts in their respective industries, and this project is no different.
This project also helped highlight the ways AI can help in any production’s workflow. I’m hyper-sensitive to the way AI is changing the creative world, having watched AI destroy different industries I’ve worked in. It’s a tool to allow creative people a different jumping off point. We tested the AI waters for this project utilizing many different AI tools, and found the ways that each one can best-serve any kind of project. From concepting, to translation, animation, audio repair, and anything imaginable, AI can aid true human creativity. It’s just up to the artist to figure out how. We had a ‘blast’ working on the project, and people really loved it. Sports Warehouse’s marking department raved, as did the top brass at Asics. A creative success all around that spawned one of Running Warehouse’s most-viewed videos in their 20-year-old catalog.
And for any AI naysayers out there– I challenge you to prompt generative AI to come up with anything remotely close to this video. Contact me when you do, I’ll have a prize for ya!
Sporst Warehouse
Edit: Kash Dierkeshied
Voice Actor: Ryohei Yabunaka
Product Photography: Daniel Hernandez