Amid the flurry of private events held during the N.B.A. All-Star Weekend was the Friday-night affair hosted by Adidas for one of its key endorsers, Orlando Magic player Dwight Howard. Held at the Orlando Executive Airport, the 700-person party saw Night Vision Entertainment turn an airplane hangar into a sleek, modern lounge with understated cues to the sportswear company's branding.
“Dwight is one of our key athletes, so we really wanted to help him celebrate All-Star Weekend,” said Lisa Markusen, head of brand design and events for Adidas. “A lot of the decor was built around light. We are playing with a lot of patterns. It’s very modern, very clean, very subtle use of our logo. We don’t like to over-brand.”
To achieve that look, Night Vision worked with Launch! to create a bilevel truss system in the middle of the 12,000-square-foot hangar. Multicolored lights filled the site as guests danced to live performances from Fabolous, Young Jeezy, D.M.C., and B.o.B. Above the main bar, 12 monitors hung at a 45-degree angle and displayed a variety of Adidas’s original videos. The videos also played on large screens on the hangar’s three walls.
The design team scattered pillows emblazoned with the Adidas logo on contemporary white lounge furniture from Cort Event Furnishings that filled the upper V.I.P. platform and a small section of the main hangar floor. Night Vision also created two decorative elements using Adidas shoes: a shoe chandelier with 22 pairs of white-on-white Adidas Superstars hung in a spiral pattern, and a three-shelf display of 54 pairs of colorful Dwight Howard Adidas basketball sneakers.
Guests dined on a variety of small bites from Renaissance Catering, including piña-colada-flavored chicken skewers and cream puffs topped with caramel sauce. Retailer FootAction was the premier sponsor of the party, along with presenting sponsors Red Bull, Duracell, and Soul by Ludacris headphones.
