Reebok x Gay Times: Your Time, Your Hometown, Your Legacy

In 2021, I collaborated with MediaCom and Gay Times to bring a new kind of partnership to life. Alongside my UK Reebok colleagues and footwear retailer Schuh, we funded three internships for people from the queer community outside London, and helped them to tell their stories through film, photography and the written word.

Why did we choose to exclude London? Because the queer experience differs vastly across the UK, with young people from small towns or less visibly diverse areas than London still feeling that they have to move to the capital to feel a sense of belonging. We wanted to change that.

What made this different to other partnerships was the commitment to the community. From start to finish, behind and in front of the camera, every person we worked with was truly a part of the queer community whose stories we were telling. We paid a fair wage to all involved; covered travel and living expenses so our three selected creatives - Jude, Huss and Mishti - could meet the team at Gay Times without being out of pocket; we even dialled down our media spend so that we could invest fairly in the production costs, and include our creatives in the decision-making process. For example, student filmmaker Jude, who set up Queer Skate Collective in Edinburgh to create a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth, was a producer on our campaign film. We also gave each creator the option of 1-1 time with the brand, the opportunity to pitch for further work with us and a workshop on brand partnerships and ensuring fairness.

Partnerships like this should not be so stand-out, but over the last few years it has become apparent that many marketing teams within brands don’t feel empowered to create these kinds of campaigns. They are brave because the emphasis is on the input, not on the campaign metrics. They require a heart-led approach and an understanding of the Self - and of how to relate - that most of us just don’t have. Personally it took me eight years of inner work, study and creating the processes and practices that underpin We Are The Antidote to be ready to bring this style of marketing initiative to life.

I am very proud of this piece of work, which I completed whilst pregnant with my daughter, Chiyo, and grieving the loss of my dad, who passed away during the campaign production. It is a testament to the team and to the practices and processes woven into We Are The Antidote, that I felt supported on all levels to create this beautiful campaign during a time of such pain and potential.

To read more about this campaign and to see and read about each creator, you can visit the Gay Times website here.

Thank you to John Beardsworth and Matt O’Hara (MediaCom), Josh Fletcher and Tiffany Gumbrell (Gay Times), Jude, Huss and Mishti (our creators), and Laura Smith, Emma Bowkett and Jonny Kidd (Reebok) who helped make this campaign happen.