My Cause, My Cleats
The NFL’s biggest stars use generative AI to create custom cleats for a cause.
Project Overview
The Brief
Showcase the capabilities of AWS generative AI by empowering NFL athletes with a tool to support the causes that matter to them.
We teamed up with NFL stars Josh Allen of the Bills, Maxx Crosby of the Raiders, and DK Metcalf of the Seahawks to transform NFL cleats with AI.
Technical Approach
We developed a gen AI-powered cleat design tool for each player to get hands-on control over style, color, and textures.
Our creative and technology teams blended technology and purpose in a unique, interactive experience leveraging Amazon Bedrock, Claude and Stable Diffusion XL to generate texture patterns wrapped on a 3D cleat. From there the players - and NFL fans - were able to further customize areas of the shoe with color details, team logos and taglines from the charitable causes involved.
The Films
The campaign launched through a series of films across NFL, team and player channels including on-air spots on NBC.
The campaign took us to Buffalo, Las Vegas and Seattle to film each of the players pairing up with the people and causes important to them to create a cleat using our generative technology. In addition to documenting the design process, we told the story of why each cause was selected, the athletes' use of technology in their creative process, and their experience creating their own cleats.
Crafting the Cleats
We collaborated with skilled artists to hand-paint the final designs onto player-specific cleats to bring the artwork to life on the field.
Working quickly ahead of upcoming NFL games, we went full-force, finishing the physical cleats for on-field action and assuring the designs were rugged enough for the cleats to accommodate intense on-field action in big games.
The Final Score
Tens of thousands of cleats were created by NFL fans, attendees at AWS re:Invent 2024, and VIP's at the Amazon Lounge at Super Bowl LIX. The campaign was immortalized by Josh Allen's record-setting performance on Sunday Night Football, wearing our AI-designed cleats on the now-iconic Lake Effect Lateral touchdown.
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