Sydney-based design and technology studio Nightjar have launched a new website for Sneaker Freaker.
Founded in 2002, the street culture magazine is the first and only international footwear
magazine. From its roots as a DIY-style fanzine to today’s global coverage, its print pages and
online platforms document every colab, custom, limited edition, retro reissue, Quickstrike,
Hyperstrike and Tier Zero sneaker release.
Loved by sneakerheads all over the world, and with a huge global fan base, Sneaker Freaker is
highly regarded as the source of sneaker truth. The fresh new design was influenced by the
‘cult’ status of the magazine itself, and it’s a total departure from the previous site.
In a massive project spanning 18 months, Nightjar worked with Sneaker Freaker to create a site
as entertaining as the mag itself, powered by a heavy-weight back end fuelled by data. The new
site takes user profile data to algorithmically generate a ‘For You’ feed, serving up personal
sneaker preferences on the user’s own, unique homepage. This also integrates with the CRM
platform, and has been engineered to create automated newsletters for sneakerheads,
delivering the most popular articles of the week, and exponentially increasing efficiencies for
the content team.
SneakerFreaker.com planned to take their advertising model to the next level, so Nightjar introduced
dynamic ad placements with targeting parameters based on the content the user is viewing, as
well as integrated affiliate links within the latest releases calendar – driving sales for Sneaker
Freaker’s partners.
There’s a focus on the in-depth, immersive feature articles Sneaker Freaker is famous for, (even
the ability to vote using WebGL-powered fire) while still keeping the flowing feed of everyday
sneaker news and upcoming releases easy to access on the site – as sneakerheads know,
recency is currency in the sneaker game.
Nightjar’s Head of Design & Technology, Ahmed Meer says: “Nightjar’s platform-first approach
allowed us to build an architecture that was as flexible as it was scalable. We safely migrated
twenty years of content over, and engineered the CMS to suit the content editor’s unique
requirements. An API-led approach allows the platform to integrate into any channel pushing
content, personalisation and automation to a whole new level. This is a platform that puts the
power in the fan’s hands and enables the content team to move faster than ever before.”
