Nike teases 'Wemby' logo crosses over with the solar eclipse

When I was growing up, football adverts were my MCU.

I’d watch a 60 second film with all my favourite players in, lose my mind, then grab poor Grandma Shelia’s birthday money and march out to buy EVERYTHING from the ad; chrome footballs, ill-advised tank tops, alice bands, you name it, I bought it.

In 2024, thankfully, there’s still a place for beautiful multi-hundred bitcoin sports commercials, but the big boys are showing remarkable agility on social…

Last week Nike teased its latest athlete, French basketball phenom Victor Wembanyama, with a 45 second video that could’ve been a trailer for the new M. Knight Shyamalan movie (in a good way)—an eerie, epic tracking shot that pulls out to reveal a beautiful crop circle launching the alien logo his merch will wear from now on.

Oh and they dropped the video right at the moment of the solar eclipse; a genius nod to the fact that the 7ft 4” ‘Wemby’ is blocking shots at a historic rate in his rookie year!

But what’s got me really excited is the origins of this teaser. Hot on the heels of WcDonalds, Nike has not just created something for social, it’s been created by social. Here’s a player who was ‘discovered’ on YouTube and endlessly hyped on Reddit years before he landed in the NBA, who was given this alien nickname in a viral 30 second interview clip with Lebron James, then a blurry image of an alien doodle he draws on his sneakers goes viral. When I was a kid, Nike created the conversation. Here it’s reacted to it. It feels like it has just WhatsApp’d that day’s coolest video to the world.

Sorry Grandma, I’m not using that birthday money to buy a cutlery set, I’m saving for Alien1 sneakers!