What do NASCAR and soccer have in common? Not much really. One is the fastest sport on concrete and one is the fastest sport on grass. You can quote me on that. 

In all seriousness though, when you have a Nike product designed for speed, inspired by a player’s love for all things racing and you live in the state of the first official NASCAR race; then there is no other logical choice but to shoot on the NASCAR track. 

We arrived at the Charlotte Motor Speedway at the crack of dawn, eager to get the shoot under way but also completely unsure of what shooting a soccer product on a race track would look like. The enormous stadium was completely silent during the early morning hours, but the carnage of barrier dents, skid marks and rubber pellets reminded us that this was not the norm. 

We got to work right away. The aforementioned skid marks, dents and candy cane curbs became our canvas as we crafted our narrative to draw parallels between the Mercurial Vapor and its racing inspired color scheme. 

We too were in a race that day - a race against the blistering North Carolina August sun, as well as the time limit of our three hour rental. I ran a lot that day working as photographer, product wearer/talent, and co-director. The highlight of the day though came as a result of my inventive team coming up with the somewhat dangerous idea to utilize a Hyundai Santa Fe, the vehicle we arrived in, as a makeshift rig to capture the racing scenes shown in the video above. 

The footage and images from that day were some of my favorite product assets I’ve ever got to shoot. Would recommend shooting at a race track if you’re ever given the chance.