Two Things | CaseStudy

Client // Novella

Assignment: Research & Insights · Brand Strategy · Global Advertising Campaign · Photography · Film · Messaging & Campaign Toolkit

Designing a footwear business from the ground up

Sneakers are a 100 billion dollar market worldwide. In recent years, there has been a tidal wave of Instagram DTC starts trying to tap into this burgeoning market. For most, the story has been exactly the same: high craftsmanship at a lower price. Beautiful but boring.

The Challenge

The sneaker industry is a $100B global market—and in recent years it has been flooded with DTC upstarts following the same playbook: premium materials, minimalist design, heritage-inspired craftsmanship, all delivered at a slightly better price. Beautiful, yes. But indistinguishable. The category had become saturated with brands that looked different but behaved the same. There was no emotional differentiation. No narrative. No reason to believe beyond the product itself. We saw an opportunity to build a brand that didn’t just enter the market—but reimagined how a sneaker company could connect with people.

In recent years, there has been a tidal wave of Instagram DTC starts trying to tap into this burgeoning market. For most, the story has been exactly the same: high craftsmanship at a lower price. Beautiful but boring.

Most of the energy in the market today comes from big, iconic sneaker brands doing limited edition drops and generic collaborations with other established brands or artists. It’s an approach badly in need of a refresh.

The Insight

Every sneaker brand was selling the shoe. None were selling the story. But consumers—especially creators, makers, and cultural tastemakers—crave brands with depth, meaning, and a point of view. We identified a simple but powerful truth: there is a limitless appetite for human stories of craft, purpose, and creativity. What if a sneaker weren’t the end of the story, but the medium for telling it?

See more at novella2020.com

Novella was born in the depths of the pandemic. Amidst the darkness, we tried to find light. Not just through the creation of our shoes. But through the stories of these uncommon artisans. And all the joy and inspiration they were putting out into the world. At a time when we needed it most.

What We Did

Investors with a vision asked Two Things to build what became Novella from the ground up.

1. Defined the Brand Strategy & Architecture

We positioned Novella around a radical concept: each drop would be a collaboration with an extraordinary creator—barbers, poets, textile artists, comedians—and each sneaker would visually express their story. No celebrity hype. No trend-chasing. Just authentic creators whose craft brings joy.

2. Developed the Footwear Platform

Organized the product team - from footwear designers, to product developers, the manufacturing partners and the systems and processes to stitch all of this together.

We also designed the systems to identify the creators that would inspire each of the shoes and worked with them to put their fingerprints (literally) on the designs.

3. Built the Go To Market Strategy and Toolkit

Global photography and film systems
Messaging structure and storytelling framework
A scalable drop architecture (“Chapters” and “Verses”)
Guidelines enabling every future release to feel distinct yet unmistakably Novella

4. Designed the Launch & Brand Experience

We crafted Novella’s inaugural introduction as both a brand launch and a proof of concept. Each limited edition release (2,020 pairs per story) was individually numbered—turning every pair into a collectible artifact of human creativity.