CASE STUDY

Dunkin’ Donuts Photo Op Swing

MUSIC FESTIVAL ACTIVATION

Minneapolis MN
Awards, Custom Fabrication, Out of Home Advertising

Executive Summary

For its global “Made the Hard Way” rebrand, created by Wieden+Kennedy New York, Red Wing Shoes needed out of home that did not just describe craft. It had to be craft.

NPARALLEL + Atomic Props hand-built two billboards from real leather and real wood, including one debossed from roughly 150 upcycled boot hides and one milled from solid embossed pine weighing more than 3,000 pounds. Seven fabricators spent eight weeks on the build, which was engineered to stand along Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis through a full winter.

The result gave a campaign about doing things the hard way two pieces of physical proof an expert audience could walk up to and verify by hand.

Business Challenge

Red Wing has made work boots in Minnesota for more than a century. Its “Made the Hard Way” platform rested on a single conviction: real things take effort, and shortcuts cheapen the result.

That premise created a problem most out of home never faces. A campaign about craft cannot be printed on vinyl. If the message is that real things are made the hard way, the billboard has to actually be made the hard way, from the same materials Red Wing’s customers trust on the job.

The brief to our shop was specific and unforgiving. Build two billboards from genuine leather and genuine wood. Keep the leather legitimate boot leather, not a printed substitute. Make the wood read as wood, never as siding. Use real fasteners and real welding. Deliver in eight weeks, install in downtown Minneapolis just before Thanksgiving, then leave both structures outdoors through a Minnesota winter of snow, salt, and freeze cycles that punish natural materials and the adhesives holding them together.

The audience raised the stakes further. Red Wing builds boots for people who work with their hands. Welders, electricians, and fabricators spot a shortcut from across a room. If the build looked staged or faked, the campaign premise would collapse in the most public way possible.

Goals & Objectives

Turn the out of home into physical proof of the "Made the Hard Way" ethos, not a printed claim about it
Fabricate two billboards from authentic leather and wood, faithful to the materials Red Wing stands for
Engineer both structures to survive an outdoor Minnesota winter over a public sidewalk
Hold museum-level finish quality at billboard scale, convincing to an audience that works in these materials
Deliver on an eight-week timeline for a pre-Thanksgiving install

Our Solution

Real Materials, No Substitutes

The concept from Wieden+Kennedy let the medium act as the message. So we started where the boots start. Red Wing’s tannery shipped us roughly 150 upcycled cowhides, the same leather used to make the boots, simply held to a different standard. The second billboard was solid pine, milled and finished to read unmistakably as real timber. No vinyl, no print, no shortcut anywhere in the build.

Debossed Leather at Billboard Scale

The leather lettering was the hardest problem and the most important detail. To press type into leather at this size, we wet the hides, pressed them into CNC-machined wood letterforms, laid the wood over the top, and held weight on the assembly until the leather took the shape permanently. Wet leather fights back, so we worked oil into it to keep it workable and to pull out watermarks left by the moisture. The finished type was formed by the leather itself, not stamped or printed onto its surface.

Finishing that Holds Dimension

Stain had to add depth without flattening the grain or looking painted, on both the wood and the leather. Red Wing had originally weighed leaving the leather unstained altogether. We tested extensively and pulled in outside experts to dial in a finish that held dimensionality on both materials, then brought samples back to the client as the process developed. Red Wing visited our shop two and three times to see the work take shape, a level of collaboration most fabrication projects never get.

Engineered for a Minnesota Winter

Both billboards had to stand outdoors through winter. Glue does not behave in the cold, and natural materials warp and stain when they get wet. We weatherproofed with marine-grade sealant and engineered both builds for durability, partnering with structural engineers to keep 2,600 and 3,000-plus pounds safe over a public sidewalk. Every billboard was constructed on steel frames and built in panels so the install crew could assemble them on site.

Results

The billboards went up along Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis as the physical anchor of a global campaign reaching markets from Toronto to Tokyo to Amsterdam. Outfront Media used two cranes to hoist and set them. At street level, on foot, the leather grain and wood texture were not an image of craft. They were the craft, close enough to touch.

Won a Bronze Addy through AdFed MN
One leather face debossed from roughly 150 upcycled boot hides, weighing 2,600 pounds
One solid embossed pine billboard weighing more than 3,000 pounds
Debossed leather lettering executed at full billboard scale, a technique rarely attempted at this size
Engineered and weatherproofed to stand through a Minnesota winter over a public sidewalk
Fabrication story featured in the Minnesota Star Tribune, AdAge, and LBB Online
Installation timelapse shared across Instagram, including Red Wing's channels and an influencer audience of roughly one million followers

For a campaign that staked everything on craft being real, the build delivered proof an expert audience could inspect by hand and never catch a shortcut.

Ready To Build Something That Proves It?

From material innovation to large-scale out of home, we specialize in builds where the craft has to be real because the idea depends on it. Whether you need custom fabrication, authentic materials at scale, or installations engineered to command attention in public space, our team brings the design, engineering, and shop-floor expertise to bring the hardest ideas to life.