The Ticket Shoe

Why it works

A pair of trainers that doubled as a season ticket. For its 90th anniversary, Berlin's transport operator BVG and adidas Originals released 500 pairs of the EQT Support 93/Berlin, printed with the camouflage-like pattern of the city's train seats and with an annual ticket stitched into the tongue, valid on BVG U-Bahn trains, trams, buses and ferries until the end of 2018. They cost 180 euros, against more than 700 euros for a regular annual pass. Hundreds camped in sub-zero temperatures outside the two Berlin stores, some from the Saturday before the Tuesday release, and resale listings of up to 1,150 euros appeared within minutes of the shops opening. It is studied as a transit brand borrowing credibility from street culture: the brief, the award citation says, was to change how young Berliners saw BVG, and rather than argue the point it turned the ticket into a collectible worth queuing for. It won the 2018 ADC Europe Grand Prix and a Gold Lion in Direct at Cannes 2018.