Goth Happens

Goth Happens is a darkly different running shoe campaign by FLUORO® with R.A.D®. The running market is loud. Neon, slogans, the kind of relentless optimism that wants you buzzing (read: exhausted) before you've even left the house. R.A.D®, the disruptive performance footwear company, wasn't interested in any of that. So for the all-black colourway drop of their running shoe, the UFO they went the other way. ‘Goth Happens’, a deadpan nod to 'shit happens', became the brief to their creative partner, East London studio FLUORO®.
Sport doesn't always have to feel like a pep talk, so FLUORO® built the campaign around darkness: liberty spike subculture, glitch-distorted film and a big ol' 'f**k you' attitude. Teaser film, social carousels, website banners, a full lookbook. Turns out not everyone runs toward the light.

Liquified metal ident
The ‘Goth Happens’ ident becomes a graphic anchor for campaign. The liquified chrome bubble type loosely bridges the gap between 90s retro sport and genre-specific metalcore. The ident has two different treatments across the campaign: monochrome and violet glitch. These two options gave the rollout deliberate flex, rather than just being a single static asset. A monochrome palette with a single, neon violet hit is true to the goth lens.

Subculture-specific styling
The casting and movement direction leaned into tension and the specifics of emo / goth subcultures, rather than dynamic action poses typical of running campaigns. So it felt more editorial than competitor-aligned sport. Jewellery details – the R.A.D charm necklace and studded soles – were treated as unexpected hero moments in their own right.

Retro-futuristic post-production
The VHS-shot footage, as well as a contact sheet-style lookbook, lo-fi stop motion gifs developed in-post were deliberate nods to Tumblr and zine subcultures. The campaign leans into high contrast and degraded glitch textures to pull more from the specific subculture aesthetic without losing R.A.D’s overarching retro-futuristic brand aesthetic.

The Goth Happens campaign ran across R.A.D® socials and website; and running retailer socials. It sits within a stream of creative work for the brand by FLUORO® that draws on subcultures and nods to the 1990s, incorporating visual artifacts from that era into the R.A.D identity. Through vibrant mash-ups of analogue and digital aesthetics, R.A.D is situated within a world much broader than training and gym culture. The brand is distinguished from the hyper-glossy, hyper-competitive aesthetic that has largely defined fitness culture in recent years, and R.A.D is positioned as a footwear brand for more than fitness fanatics alone.