Reebok Alien Stomper

Reebok Alien Stomper "Final Battle" Pack - FTW Apparel & Packaging

Reebok Alien Stomper "Final Battle" Pack - FTW Apparel & Packaging from Jon Hill

Reebok Alien Stomper "Final Battle" Pack - FTW Apparel & Packaging

After the success of the packaging on the original Alien Stomper in 2016, Fox and Reebok teamed up with ALIENS once more. This year the packaging and shoes were hyper focused on the collectors, and true fans of the ALIENS franchise. Every facet of the box has some reference to the films, or hidden element that only fans will catch. Much like the research process, scanning the movie frame by frame, the fans will have to carefully scan the box for hidden elements. It was very important to stay within the confines of the ALIEN visual language while being creative and making something that felt new.

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The two side panels have illustrated typography callouts from Ripley and the Alien Queen. 20th Century Fox provided the script used in a gloss print over the illustrated callouts.

I designed a graphic for the midsole of the Alien Queen pair. It's only visible after charging the glow in the dark effects by a light. The ice grey outsole allows the graphic to show through once charged. Next pictures shows the texture better.

Slime/hive graphic used on the glow-in-the-dark elements of the midsole and subtly on the sockliner.

I drew the face and the gloss graphics on the black portions of the box.

Image taken from the press release shows the gloss on black movie script.

Mockup of the sockliners done in Illustrator.

The slime graphic from the GID effects on the outsole is carried across to the background of the sockliner. The acid was redrawn to look like it's burning through the layers of the shoe instead of layers of metal like on the white outer shell box.

Image taken from the press release shows the acid blood and rainbow metallic Weyland badge on the outer white shell.

The inner flaps of the boxes have the official 20th Century Fox Studios script for ALIENS subtly printed in UV gloss across the iconic line by Ripley, “Get away from her, you bitch!” along with the Alien Queen’s response. This is a hidden surprise for the consumer to engage them even further and pull them into the story being told by the box as it unfolds. Both hand drawn lines appear exactly as they are in the script. Ellen Ripley’s line is illustrated aggressively and with authority indicative of the character. “The Queen Hisses,” is done in a hand brush script rife with venomous splatters inspired by the drooling jaws of the Queen. Fox Studios provided the original script of the film.

Many hours had to be put into the face of Ripley at the very last minute. The initial more comic look was not approved by Sigourney Weaver. I was asked to redo the face to Sigourney’s specifications before she signed off on her likeness. The outer flap of the Power Loader shoe features Ripley and the Alien Queen is on the flap covering the shoes inspired by the Alien. The Final Battle mural lineart and inks were done by two other designers on the team.

Weyland-Yutani winged logo was recreated from movie stills Weyland-Yutani Globe logo wrapped the existing W Y logo with a globe inspired by screens depicting orbital descent on the planet LV-426 Acid blood graphic uses cell shading and pointillism utilized in the ALIEN comic series The acid burn reveals a ductwork in which Aliens used for stealthy travel

Interior boxes were wrapped on 5 sides with graphics printed in UV Gloss. Each box represents the shoe within. The upper box is the Alien Queen’s hive texture and the lower is inspired by the bay the power loader was in. I referenced every scene the hive was visible in ALIENS. I scrubbed through scene by scene and cross referenced the hive pieces to make the most accurate graphic with no repeated elements. I created the acid graphic, recreated the Weyland-Yutani logos, and the Japanese characters seen throughout the exterior white shell. Inspiration from the pack was heavily pulled from the final fight scene of the film.

Illustrator rendering to show the glowing midsole and how it ties into the ALIENS visual language.

An initial sketch for the slime/hive graphic. This ended up being too loose and whip-like to be an effective repeat graphic.

An intermediate sketch for the slime/hive graphic. I attempted to make denser and looser parts that could connect and repeat. This ended up being too detailed but I used a crop of this and reworked it for the final repeat graphic.

This sketch evolved from the two previous sketches. A crop of the previous black sketch was used as a starting point that then turned into this. I deliberately added channels between the cells to give a bit of organization to the chaos. After all, the Xenomorph is an intelligent creature. Their hive building isn't random so the pattern shouldn't be.

This sketch was pulled from a focused section of the previous red, denser sketch. This ended up being the final sketch that I then vectored in Illustrator and turned into a repeating graphic. This was used for the GID elements of the midsole and the subtle sockliner background.

This is the final vectored tile of the repeat graphic based on the previous red and black sketches.

Tech pack calling out the gloss printing areas.

Tech pack calling out the CMYK printing areas.

Various options created for the evolution sockliner. The "cool guy", wearing the Alien Stompers, was almost used but he didn't look quite surprised enough when I put a chestburster coming out of him. Circled egg ended up being the final one used.

The evolution of the Alien. This ended up being the final pieces used on the sockliner. The starcrest was added before the egg to tie it into the Reebok brand.