SPORTS BASEMENT

Beloved Bay Area retailer Sports Basement is like REI meets Trader Joe’s. In addition to being a massive outdoor equipment and apparel warehouse selling top brands for less, each store offers seasonal rentals, community events, funky hangout spaces and a neighborhood feel that’s helped create a loyal army of Basementeers for over 20 years.

In the fall of 2022, Sports Basement tabbed us to help launch their first store in Southern California. With no existing brand recognition in Orange County, our challenge was to develop creative answers to the question on everyone’s mind (especially the client’s, who provided us with this line) - “Who the heck is Sports Basement?”

Created with Commune Communication.

SO WHO THE HECK IS SPORTS BASEMENT?

It was important for Sports Basement that this campaign didn’t feel like NorCal invading SoCal. Our first pieces introduced the brand and the campaign’s question using familiar scenes to anyone who calls the OC home, giving Sports Basement a “we know the neighborhood” quality.

SO MUCH MORE THAN A STORE

As the weeks went by and the store began to take shape, we introduced new elements of the store. Namely, that it’s a lot more than a store.

PRINT ADS

Part of our media buy was a Spadea, a four-panel print ad that wraps around the Sunday edition of the O.C. Register newspaper. Which is good when you’re writing for a brand with a lot to say.

SO MUCH TOUR OF A STORE

We created a video series introducing the unique personalities of store employees and revealing the massive amount of inventory available in each department.

SNOW SEASON

Sports Basement owns winter. Even in sunny Orange County, winter sports gear and apparel was expected to be a major driver of in-store visits. And since the OC store scheduled its Grand Snowpening in early December, we knew we had to turn up (down?) the heat around ski and snowboard rentals.