How Catalyst XR Used ShapesXR to Revolutionize Adidas' City2Surf Activation

Background and Objectives

Catalyst XR is an award-winning creative technology production company and a trusted partner for agencies, enterprise businesses, government and startups. As a leading XR production studio based in Sydney, Australia, Catalyst has been crafting the future of immersive technology since 2015 and pushing the boundaries of XR technology to transform industries and redefine what's possible. Adidas was looking for a fun and innovative way to showcase their new Adizero range of running shoes as part of a physical activation in Sydney that tied in with the annual City2Surf race happening in the city. We wanted to create a memorable and fast-paced running experience that effectively showcased the Adizero range while getting people moving. Using the Quest 3’s passthrough feature we created a temple run style racing game that got participants to collect shoes, dodge runners and jump hurdles, to see who could finish the track in the fastest time!

Decision Process

We knew we wanted to do a mixed reality ‘product showcase’ allowing participants to pick up ‘digital twins’ of the 4 Adidas shoes, as well as an anchored game portal within the physical activation space. Being able to quickly block out our assets in ‘passthrough mode’ was crucial to getting the interaction flow locked in. Once we were happy with that we were then able to use the spatial anchor feature to place our temple run portal within a 2x2 metre playzone that had to map exactly to the floor plan of the event space. Iterating on the game portal at a 1:1 scale was really important to accurately size elements and place obstacles. This wouldn’t have been possible without the passthrough materials available in shapes. Fast prototyping is a core value in our team and ShapesXR was the perfect tool to test out our passthrough portal idea and quickly storyboard the interactions of exploring shoes in a physical space. ShapesXR has a wide variety of features to block out scenes, add simple behaviors and simulate real interactions in a matter of minutes. There’s nothing like it on the market right now, so it was our go-to choice.

Implementation and Use

Using the scenes and viewpoints features we mapped out every step in the UX flow. We were also able to precisely position and size elements spatially which made handing off to the dev team really easy as there was no risk of misinterpreting the designers' intentions.During this stage of the process we had teams in Sydney and Bulgaria working together on the spatial layout. This was incredibly easy as we would both jump into the shared space and work on blocking out the scene together from the office and a hotel room in Burgas. Being able to review our design in 3D together made iterating on the concept faster than any tool we’ve tried before. The breakthrough for us came when we could quickly prototype the portal idea using passthrough. We instantly knew we were onto something great when we could position elements in the scene and see how they would work in the physical store Adidas was building.

Results and Feedback

The Adidas activation was a huge success and every visitor loved the racing game! Becoming the highest scorer became a coveted title. Using shapesXR has made ALL our design work better. It’s as simple as that. Being able to build your creative vision in the context where it will be experienced by the user saved us days of painful iterations. It also prompted us to think of novel interactions we’d never think of if we were sitting in front of a laptop while designing. Being able to share a prototype with a client before development starts has been a game changer. Not only do they ‘get it’ faster, they also have more confidence in the studio to deliver what they envisioned, as describing an XR experience is almost impossible without a simple 3D mockup.