New Balance and Athletics Ireland #NewBreed Campaign

New Balance has developed a new advertising campaign entitled #NewBreed to promote their partnership with Athletics Ireland as official kit supplier.

After the recent retirements of some of Ireland’s greatest athletes including David Gillick and Derval O’Rourke the “New Breed" represent the next wave of talent in Irish athletics who will look to emulate them and current Irish stars like reigning World Champion Robert Heffernan.

New Balance sponsored athletes feature in the campaign including Irish 400m Hurdle record holder Thomas Barr who recently secured the world championships qualification time running 49.08 at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational Meet in Florida in a European lead time and was named male European Athlete of the Month as a result of this performance.

The campaign also includes Double European Cross Country Champion Fionnuala Britton who is embarking on a new direction in her athletes’ career moving up in distance to the Marathon, U23 Irish 400m Hurdler Record Holder Jessie Barr and Junior Athlete of the Year 2015, Karl Griffin also feature.

The visuals of the campaign captures the dynamic and stylised action portraits of each athlete.  The typographic line on the torso of the athlete provides insight into the character and mind-set of the athlete revealing their character and inner core.

Thomas Barr: Your Limits are Limitless
Fionnuala Briton: Be the Hunter and the Hare
Jessie Barr: Run the Race of the Race Runs You
Karl Griffin: The Zone is Beyond your Comfort Zone

The campaign also communicates the bright future ahead for Irish Athletics. With the average age of the Irish team at the recent European Athletics Championships in Zurich and Prague being 23 and the number of athletes hitting required standards to become part of the High Performance programme increasing by 35% from 87 to 118 in 2015.