Anomaly's David Barton on Crafting CRO’s Mars Mellow Shoe
When rapper and singer, CRO, set out to create the Mars Mellow, a futuristic shoe blending his playful artistry with cutting-edge 3D printing, he turned to Anomaly and 3D pioneers Zellerfeld to bring his vision to life.
The collaboration resulted in a product that embodies the thrill of space exploration while championing sustainability and creativity.
Anomaly’s managing director David Barton spoke with LBB’s Olivia Atkins to share the story behind this groundbreaking partnership, offering insights into the design process, the viral campaign strategy, and the future of artist-brand collaborations in the world of footwear.
LBB> How did this collaboration between you, Zellerfeld and CRO begin?
David> We were contacted by CRO’s team on the back of global, creatively forward-thinking projects for brands like Rimowa, Zalando and Google, that we’ve done out of Berlin over the last seven and a half years. They were looking for a creative partner with a strong international creative reputation who could help catapult CRO beyond the German-speaking world and help grow his reputation as a multi-faceted artist and musician.
LBB> The Mars Mellow shoe is a space-inspired and futuristically-designed piece of footwear. What was the brief on this project and how did you settle on this design?
David> CRO has long had an interest for life beyond Earth, he wanted to create a shoe that blended the thrill of space exploration with his signature playful and imaginative style. He needed a partner who could bring the inspiration of extraterrestrial life alive through various touchpoints – from product, packaging design to communications, while retaining the playfulness of his personality. We, therefore, focused on designing a creative world that achieved all of this, by speaking to the intrigue of the Red Planet and creating a high-end aesthetic that was befitting of Zellerfeld's elevated brand.
LBB> What was it like working with tech specialists Zellerfeld and raop (a music genre between rap and pop) artist CRO? How did their different styles and specialisms influence the creation of the product?
David> The partnership to bring this launch to life was absolutely seamless. Thanks to our experience working across tech, fashion, luxury & lifestyle for brands like LVMH, Rimowa, Aston Martin and Zalando, we could marry the ambitions and needs of both partners to craft a design language that elevated the aesthetic and connected the Zellerfeld brand with CRO.
LBB> What were the biggest challenges in developing the shoe? And why was sustainability such a core factor?
David> Sustainability is fundamental to Zellerfeld's business model. All of their footwear can be returned at the end of its usable life and, given every product is made from only a single material thanks to the 3D-printing aspect, they can be easily recycled into new footwear. Their shoes are also made-to-measure and specification, which means that there is both an extremely low level of returns and a near-zero level of excess.
LBB> You launched the product mysteriously on social, tell me about the strategic thinking behind the drop?
David> We knew CRO's audience loved him for his music and artistic endeavours, but also knew what type of content they were used to seeing from him across his channels. A shoe like the Mars Mellow for an artist primarily recognised for his music therefore demanded an altogether different comms approach, one that leveraged his channels and his community, but in a completely new way.
LBB> The entire campaign reached over 10 million people without a single euro being spent on media. At what point did you realise the campaign's success? And how important is going viral as a method for measuring success?
David> The virality of the campaign wasn't an objective we set out to target at the start of the project; what we were targeting above all was a connection with CRO's millions of fans and landing his new creative project in culture. However, we realised the campaign's viral potential from the very first post, when we saw his audience's response to his ‘disappearance’ during an Instagram Live video where he spoke of an upcoming tour.
This single piece of content sparked incredible engagement and discussion throughout his channels, as well as in reddit forums and YouTube videos, where his followers started trying to decode what had just happened. Things really kicked off when we started dropping comments in a coded language across his channels from extraterrestrial beings, riddles that were quickly solvable and shared across social media as his followers tried to work out CRO's location.
LBB> Is there scope for there to be another brand-artist collaboration between Zellerfeld and CRO and why do you think these celebrity-endorsed collections continue to prove popular?
David> Given the success of this partnership and the creative synergy between CRO and Zellerfeld to create truly unique footwear design, future projects are certainly possible. What differentiates this from other celebrity-endorsed or designed collections however is the output Zellerfeld facilitates thanks to their 3D printing approach, which ensures that every collaboration is different from the last, creating truly unique collections for artists and creators. By reinventing the entire production process – from design to manufacturing – Zellerfeld has established a new paradigm for the footwear industry. No longer constrained by moulds or mass production, Zellerfeld’s innovative approach offers unprecedented freedom for designers and creators, making 3D printing the go-to method for the future of footwear creation.
