Petro dollars have corrupted Russian Football. Professional teams buy foreign talent rather than recruiting through their own youth system.

This lack of opportunity and a feeling of distrust has set in amongst the next generation of players who dream of performing at the top level.

How could Nike help reconnect the players on the street to teams at the top, fuelling passion for football in the grass-roots?

We sparked a revolution across 1000 of Moscow's famous korobka (cage) football pitches to uncover the true soul of Russian football.

We created a new identity for the korobkba players and championed their unique playing style of fast, fearless football to inspire belief that anyone can rise to the top if they risk everything.

300+ street teams in 10 districts battled it out to secure proffesional trials and to claim recognition as Moscow's finest - The Korobka Rebels.

We kick started the movement with the inspiring story of Kirill Laptev, the 'Nike Chance' winner, who rose to fame from the Korobka.

We added more fuel to the fire by approaching avid street footballer and Korobka owner L’One, Russia’s most influential rapper, to write a track that clebrated life in the Korobkas.

Our visual language spread across Moscow’s Korobka tournament locations - A unique mixture of street inspired graphics and Korobka slang, owned, used and shared by the kids themselves.

Korobka Rebel HQ saw over 1 million visitors over 9 days and 7000+ players signed up to compete in the local tournaments.

L'One's rebel anthem was released on iTunes and quickly became Moscow’s anthem of the summer. It was one of his label's most successful tracks to date with 1.5 million+ views and downloads.

The visual langage of the Korobkas won Best Branded Campaign at Design Week.