#FindYourSoleCampaign Hashtag

July 4, 2026Launch Date

Gen Z 16-27Primary Target

Lolla + FIFA WCAnchor Events

Who: The Audience

The primary target audience is Gen Z event-goers ages 16 to 27, with a secondary reach toward Gen Alpha (ages 10 to 15) through family attendance at sporting events and cultural activations. This demographic lives at the intersection of sneaker culture, live music, and sports fandom. What they wear to Lollapalooza or a FIFA World Cup match is as intentional as the ticket they bought, and shoes are a huge part of that.

This audience values individuality, authenticity, and self-expression over brand loyalty for its own sake. They are drawn to brands that let them participate, not just consume.

DICK’S Sporting Goods and Foot Locker already serve this audience across their retail footprint. The Foot Locker sneaker truck activation meets them where they already are plus more, at the cultural moments that define their summers, including major music festivals like Lollapalooza and global sporting events like the FIFA World Cup.

Where: The OOH Placements

The “Find Your Sole” campaign will run across three out-of-home formats in markets directly tied to the sneaker truck’s summer 2026 tour stops:

What’s the Goal?

For many Gen Z consumers, DICK’S is where their parents bought them cleats for soccer practice. The brand carries strong equity with families and youth athletes, but it has not yet fully established itself as a player in sneaker culture and streetwear, a space where Foot Locker has deep roots. Following the acquisition of the Foot Locker business, DICK’S has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to merge its authority in sport with Foot Locker’s credibility in sneaker culture and create something neither brand has achieved alone.

With the use of the retro logo from the 1958-1980s, similar to what some professional teams are doing, it brings an instant sense of nostalgia and cultural credibility that Gen Z actually responds to without having lived it. The aesthetic does the work before a single word is read, signaling that this campaign understands where sneaker culture came from and respects it enough to honor it authentically rather than just reference it for trend value.

It draws attention and brings a sense of ‘new’ to something that has always existed, which is exactly the goal. By rooting the campaign visually in the era that birthed sneaker culture while pushing it into the spaces Gen Z occupies today such as festival grounds, World Cup stadiums, city streets. DICK’S and Foot Locker are positioning themselves as the connective tissue between where sneaker culture started and where it’s going next.

The “Find Your Sole” campaign is the first public expression of the merger. The OOH creative is designed to build anticipation for the sneaker truck tour, establish the campaign’s visual identity and tagline in culture before the truck arrives, and associate DICK’S Sporting Goods with self-expression, individuality, and the legacy of athletes who changed what it means to show up as yourself.

Why Do We Need This Ad?

DICK’S Sporting Goods is at an inflection point. The acquisition of the Foot Locker business gave the company direct credibility in sneaker culture, streetwear, and the global sneaker community. But an acquisition alone does not change perception. DICK’S needs a campaign that announces this new identity to the generation that matters most, and it needs to do so in a way that feels earned, not forced.

First, the sneaker truck activation only works if people know it exists before it arrives. The “Find Your Sole” OOH campaign is the hype engine. A Gen Z consumer at Lollapalooza needs to have already seen the transit wrap on a Chicago CTA bus, already recognized the tagline, and already told their friends they want to hit the truck and customize their soles. The wild postings in Wicker Park and Logan Square need to feel like the sneaker truck is a neighborhood event, not a corporate pop-up that showed up with no purpose. Without OOH building a wave of anticipation in the weeks leading up to each tour stop, the truck cannot serve its purpose.

The “Find Your Sole” OOH campaign plants DICK’S and Foot Locker at that intersection with creative that does not just advertise a truck. It invites an entire generation to step into the legacy of athletes who refused to conform, many of whom have partnered with DICK’S Sporting Goods, and to leave their own mark on a custom sole that no one else in the world will ever have.

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