Gucci’s genderless Grip watch once again becomes the focus of a collaborative project, harnessing the passion and skill of a variety of street sports enthusiasts.
Conceived under Alessandro Michele’s creative vision, this watch is inspired by the grip tape that skaters use on their decks, the name a reference to the way in which the timepiece fits snugly around the wrist.
Now the Grip watch returns to Gucci social platforms in specially created portraits and short videos. Whereas last year the timepiece joined communities of skaters around the world, today Alessandro Michele has invited a number of talents from the international street sport scene to share their personal stories and participate in a visual exploration of their world.
The watch is shown on the wrists of a diverse group in several international cities. All are passionate practitioners of their sports who find self-expression through the act of roller- skating, playing basketball, skateboarding or breakdancing. These athletes wear the Grip timepiece for a series of playful and kinetic portraits and short Instagram Reels videos. In the moment, they freestyle to their own flow and style – demonstrating how sport is for everybody, and that traditional rules need not apply.
The project showcases a selection of watches from the Grip collection, all characterised by a distinctive rounded square dial, featuring windows with rotating discs to indicate the hour and minute. These watches, with their unique design that blends timeless appeal with highly contemporary style now become part of images and videos that together form a joyful portrait of action, creativity, inclusion, sociability and subculture.
The athletes and sport enthusiasts are being shot in different cities, from Paris, Berlin and Chengdu, to New York and Los Angeles.
Among the collaborators is Leo Baker, a non-binary American professional skateboarder and activist, and Cher Strauberry, a musician and skateboarding prodigy since childhood. They are joined by Paperboy Prince, a basketball player and rapper, along with dancer Sulian Rios from Paris, Berlin-based roller-skater Sara Lancerio and Chinese longboarder Duo Duo. Among the partnering photographers are New York-based Marie Tomanova, Miriam Marlene Waldner from Berlin and Brad Elterman, who specialises in documenting pop, punk and rock bands in Hollywood.
To celebrate this initiative, seven variations of the Grip watch will debut in the Gucci App section that enables customers to virtually ‘try on’ the House’s timepieces. Through pioneering augmented reality technology, available on iOS, users can explore what the watches might look like to wear by simply pointing their mobile device’s camera towards their wrist.
#GucciGrip
Credits
Location: New York
Talent: Leo Baker (skateboarder and activist) Photographer/Director: Melissa Bueno-Woerner
Location: New York
Talent: Paperboy Prince (basketball player, rapper and activist) Photographer/Director: Marie Tomanova
Location: Los Angeles
Talent: Cher Strauberry (skateboarder and musician) Photographer/Director: Brad Elterman
Location: Paris
Talent: Sulian Rios (dancer and performer) Photographer/Director: Camille Derniaux
Location: Berlin
Talent: Sara Lancerio (roller-skater) Photographer/Director: Miriam Marlene Waldner
Location: Chengdu
Talent: Duo Duo (longboarder) Photographer: Han Chang Song
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