Solving a sneaker brand’s “identity crisis” by focusing on creators
garrixon
Through in-depth interviews, diversity emerged as the key driving force for creativity in the sneaker world.
SERVICES
BRAND STRATEGY
POSITIONING
VISUAL IDENTITY
GO-TO-MARKET STRATEGY
DESIGN SYSTEM
PROJECT INFO
Challenge
GARRIXON is a sneaker-making workshop on a mission to create a more democratized sneaker community. In 2021, they introduced a product that allowed independent creators to build their own limited-edition sneakers. To support the release, we were tasked with redefining the brand strategy and visual identity.
Solution
Through in-depth interviews, diversity emerged as the key driving force for creativity in the sneaker world. Thus, we saw an opportunity to uniquely establish GARRIXON’s presence as a company that genuinely contributes to the sneaker community, leading us to the positioning “Made for Makers.”
Outcomes
A new positioning—”Made for Makers,” from which we built a versatile visual identity that embodied the vision of each GARRIXON creator and empowered them to express themselves creatively while maintaining the essence of the GARRIXON brand.
GARRIXON is a Philadelphia-based sneaker-making workshop.
By offering one-off customisation and sneaker reconstruction, Garrixon is on a mission to create a more democratised sneaker community.
Collaboration is at the core of what GARRIXON do: they enable and empower the creativity of others. As a result, all of GARRIXON’s products and services are designed to serve others.
In 2021, they decided to take this collaborative commitment one step further and expanded their product offering to better enable independent creators to dream up, create, and build their own limited edition sneakers.
We led them through this expansion by creating a refined brand strategy and visual identity.
Empowering those who power the sneaker culture
As part of the strategic process, we talked to employees, clients, and independent creators. The one unifying theme from these conversations was diversity. Diversity is perceived as the ultimate driver for creativity in the sneaker world, which can feel constricted by pre-defined silhouettes dictated by conglomerates.
We saw this conflict as a unique opportunity for GARRIXON. They had the potential to push back against the industry norm and facilitate the creativity the fans craved, enabling GARRIXON to carve its own niche while genuinely contributing to the sneaker community.
Based on these learnings, the following strategic positioning was developed: “Made for Makers”.
A distinct design system that changes with the Makers it serves
As a brand that was Made for Makers, GARRIXON needed a visual identity that was strong enough to stand on its own but flexible enough to hold the vision of its Maker.
We created a design system inspired by the GARRIXON logo to enable the creative expression of others while staying true to the GARRIXON brand.
Through a series of interviews and creative exercises, the team cut through the idea fog and produced ‘Made for Makers.’
They were creative, detailed, and extremely fun to work with. Our ‘identity crisis’ was solved, and we highly recommend them.
Stephen Heinbockel,
CEO, GARRIXON
This project was led by Your Majesty, Amsterdam’s award-winning creative agency that became part of Infinum in 2025. The original case study can be read here.
