Honor the Gift x Varo

To kick off the That Varo Bank campaign, we wanted to inspire our audience to pursue financial freedom in a way that got people excited. So we looked to NBA superstar (and Varo investor) Russell Westbrook and his clothing line, Honor the Gift, to help us build something special. The result? An exclusive t-shirt drop where we leveraged influencers, paid and organic social, and an in-store pop-up at the Honor the Gift flagship store in Los Angeles.

(yes, I got to fly out for the pop-up and I really want you to ask me about it).

(Fun fact: Steph dropped 50 points that night in a losing effort against Russ and the Clippers. As a GSW fan, I’m still salty about it)

In bringing this drop to life, we enlisted the services of some of the best fashion influencers on Instagram and TikTok, @ron_doug and @state.of.dallas

Check out @ron_doug‘s GRWM (“Get Ready With Me”) video styling our tee, which got OVER 2 MILLION VIEWS across Instagram and TikTok.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE REEL

The stylings of @state.of.dallas were also on display with her outfit rotation and unboxing video that showcased all of the branding elements and packaging that we worked so hard to bring to life.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE REEL

On Saturday, March 25th, we took over the Honor the Gift flagship store on Fairfax Ave (aka streetwear heaven) in Los Angeles to give people a shot at getting the long awaited collab tee. But we wanted to make sure that Varo didn’t get lost in the pomp and circumstance of Hollywood, so we gave the shop a proper Varo makeover for the event.

We sought to make something that felt immersive but not invasive to the existing décor, so we took over the windows with decals, flooded the social wall with “Varo purple” LEDs and projections, posted the shared mission across TV displays, and more! (Including the peak of my contributions as an art director – the CUSTOM PILLOWS)

Scroll to see some pics I took from the setup (and my Jordan 1s)

After the event, we had influencers posting all about the collab – including @pressley, who, although we didn’t plan for her attendance, was more than excited to share the tees and event to her over 2 million Instagram followers.

Inspired by staples of streetwear and drop culture, we had to capitalize on the exclusivity of the drop with our animated “Just Missed It” banners on Instagram stories.

After an action-packed day at the Honor the Gift flagship store, we used a prompt on Instagram and had our followers post to their stories for one last shot at the drop if they couldn’t make it to the pop-up.

As a streetwear enthusiast, student of the culture, and art director, the love and attention to detail visually and conceptually throughout this drop was amazing – easily one of the top 3 coolest things I’ve ever done, and it’s not #3.

Keep scrolling to see the letter that came with each shirt as part of the custom packaging (check out @state.of.dallas’s video for more on that)