One of the web’s leading indie video site cos, Heavy.com, will be a marquee sponsor of the world’s largest touring sneaker, hip-hop and lifestyle exhibition, the Sneaker Pimps World Tour.
With past events drawing crowds of up to 2,000 15- to 35-year-old male hip-hop, street art and sneaker fans, the Sneaker Pimps Tour will hit the United States, Canada and Australia. The festival features more than 1,500 pairs of rare, limited-edition, vintage, celebrity-signed and artist-collaborated sneakers and sneaker-inspired artwork, plus fashion and photography by over 500 street artists, from Futura and Lady Pink to Dave White, Ghost, Stash, Mister Cartoon, Shepard Fairey and Claw Money. The tour also features live street art installations, skateboarding demos, street basketball competitions and live hip-hop and rock performances.
As part of the sponsorship, Heavy is packaging its advertisers into Sneaker Pimps events, creating branded entertainment out of festival footage that will run on a Sneaker Pimps video channel and promote the tour on Heavy’s international properties.
Heavy’s original programming, which includes Over the Hills, the hit parody of MTV’s The Hills, Flex and the City, the popular spoof of Sex and the City, and the Webby Award-winning Burly Sports Show, is available on mobile, VOD, Sony PSP, Apple iPod and Joost. Advertisers on the broadband network include Anheuser Busch, General Motors, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Proctor & Gamble and Unilever.
In Canada, the Sneaker Pimps Tour will stop in Toronto on Mar. 1, in Montreal on Mar. 8 and in Vancouver Mar. 15. Venues will be released in early January at www.sneakerpimps.net. Last year’s Canadian venues included Club Circa (Toronto), Just for Laughs (Montreal) and Plush (Vancouver).
To promote the tour, the Sneaker Pimps video channel will launch this week as a retrospective of previous tours, including interviews with featured artists, musicians and sneakerheads, as well as profiles of some of the most sought-after kicks in the world.
Founded in Sydney, Australia, the Sneaker Pimps Tour has travelled to more than 60 cities worldwide and put on over 200 shows since 2003.
