W+K NY is Seeing Stripes with this Augmented Reality Gap Experience

Gap, the iconic American clothing brand, has today revealed a unique online experience that turns customers’ favorite crazy stripe knitwear or t-shirts into musical instruments. 

Play Your Stripes, an augmented reality experience, allows consumers to play along to rising star Blood Orange’s latest hit “It Is What It Is” or create their own tunes. The experience is one of the centrepieces of Gap’s newly launched interactive Holiday gift guide, GapGiftGuide.com, designed to take the stress out of seasonal shopping. 

Activated via web cam, Play Your Stripes turns your individual stripes or Gap's iconic Holiday sweaters into musical sounds, pre-programmed with a range of synthesized musical notes. 

Customers are invited to play along with the Blood Orange track by remixing sounds on the track, or creating their own tunes. The result is a personalized music video that consumers are able to share within their social channels. 

Gap has also partnered with Dev Hynes and visual artist/director Alex Da Corte to create a special video for Blood Orange’s song “It Is What It Is” to drive consumers to the experience.

“Play Your Stripes encapsulates the lighter tone of our Dress Normal Holiday campaign, by reinventing the idea of gifting crazy stripe knitwear for a digitally focused audience,” says Seth Farbman, Gap’s Global Chief Marketing Officer.

“It also reflects the increasing focus on digital and social media engagement we have been building toward as a brand. We’re inviting our customers to put a smile on the face of family and friends by sharing their musical talents in a fun and highly seasonal way. 

“Gap’s first store sold jeans and records, so it is fitting in the year of our 45th anniverssary to have a link back to our musical heritage, but in a way that will resonate with today’s youth culture,” said Farbman. 

W+K also created a series of 'Gap Art' Films, which you can view in a playlist below.

Play Your Stripes is part of Gap’s 2014 holiday campaign, which celebrates the spirit of the season through the Dress Normal lens. The Dress Normal 2014 holiday campaign also includes print, broadcast and online films directed by acclaimed Hollywood director Sofia Coppola, all accessible on youtube.com/gap. The campaign was developed in partnership with Gap’s global agency, Wieden+Kennedy New York.