TODD SNYDER AND FITNESS COACH AKIN AKMAN TEST THEIR NEW COLLABORATION COLLECTION IN A NEW CAMPAIGN BY TREY LAIRD AND SEBASTIAN FAENA
BY OBI ANYANWU
Todd Snyder has a significant connection with sports and athleticism. The New York City-based designer is in a long-standing partnership with classic sportswear brand Champion and opened a physical location for the collaboration called ‘City Gym.’ The designer also shares his name with a former pro football wide receiver that played for the Atlanta Falcons. Go figure!
The latest Todd Snyder campaign for the brand’s capsule collection with Champion and athlete and star fitness coach Akin Akman’s ‘Army’, is an ode to athleticism and fitness in the Big Apple.
Art directed by Trey Laird of Laird+Partners and shot by Sebastian Faena, the campaign stars Akman and model Emily Didinato using a rooftop as their personal gym. The black-and-white images are very dynamic and moody, channeling comic book cities like Gotham City and Metropolis. The campaign also captures Akman’s dedication to fitness.
The athlete that appeared in the first Todd Snyder brand campaign last year puts his environment to good use by stretching on ladders and performing traditional and seated pushups on steel beams.
I was inspired by images of superheroes in the streets of New York. Think Spider-Man hanging off of billboards and rooftops. We shot the campaign mainly on a rooftop with a huge industrial sign on it. Akin constantly uses the City as his gym, and so it felt right to me.
Laird added that the campaign “feels authentic” and “really takes Todd’s Champion line to a cooler, sexier place.” Perhaps these are words that can best describe the “modern urban men” that inspire Snyder, or maybe the best way to describe those men is simply ‘champion.’
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